Lowell (Martian crater) Lowell (Martian crater) The Lowell Crater is a large impact crater on Aonia Terra in the Thaumasia quadrangle of Mars. The crater is about 203 kilometers (127 miles) in diameter. Lowell Crater has a ring of mountains on its floor which gives it a sort of bull's eye appearance. Its nearby features include the craters Slipher to the north, Douglass to the east, and Coblentz to the southwest, the small mountain Aonia Mons to the west, and Aonia Planum to the southeast. Lowell Crater is named for Percival Lowell who built the Lowell Observatory in Flagstaff, Arizona, in 1894, and
Ohio State University Radio Observatory which has searched the universe for extraterrestrial radio signals for 22 years, beginning in 1973. Ohio State University Radio Observatory The Ohio State University Radio Observatory was a Kraus-type radio telescope located on the grounds of the Perkins Observatory at Ohio Wesleyan University from 1963 to 1998. Known as Big Ear, the observatory was part of The Ohio State University's Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence (SETI) project. Construction of the Big Ear began in 1956 and was completed in 1961, and it was finally turned on for the first time in 1963. The main reflector of Big Ear The Flat Reflector