Lunar craters Lunar craters Lunar craters are impact craters on Earth's Moon. The Moon's surface has many craters, almost all of which were formed by impacts. The word "crater" was adopted from the Greek word for vessel - (Κρατήρ a Greek vessel used to mix wine and water). Galileo built his first telescope in late 1609, and turned it to the Moon for the first time on November 30, 1609. He discovered that, contrary to general opinion at that time, the Moon was not a perfect sphere, but had both mountains and cup-like depressions. These were named craters by Schroeter (1791), extending
Craters of the Moon National Wilderness Craters of the Moon National Wilderness The Craters of the Moon National Wilderness is located in the U.S. state of Idaho. The wilderness is managed by the National Park Service and is integral with Craters of the Moon National Monument. Set aside to protect volcanic features which ended 2,100 years ago, the wilderness has numerous lava flows, cinder cones and moon-like craters. The region was utilized by NASA to help prepare astronauts for moon walks as they believed that the region would provide a similar setting to what astronauts could expect to see on the moon. U.S. Wilderness Areas do