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List of largest craters in the Solar System
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Following are the largest impact craters on various worlds of the Solar System. For a full list of named craters, see List of craters in the Solar System. The ratio column compares the crater diameter with the diameter of the impacted celestial body. The maximum crater diameter is 157% of the body diameter (the circumference along a great circle).
| Body | Crater | Crater diameter | Body diameter | Ratio | Images | Notes | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Mercury | Caloris | 1550 | 4,880 km | 32% | [[File:The Mighty Caloris (PIA19213).png | 100px]] | |||
| Rembrandt | 715 | 15% | [[File:Rembrandt crater mosaic.jpg | 100px]] | |||||
| Venus | Mead | 280 | 12,100 km | 2% | [[File:Mead crater (PIA00148).png | center | frameless | 100x100px]] | |
| Earth | Vredefort | 250–300 km (160–190 mi) | 12,740 km | 2% | [[File:Vredefort Dome STS51I-33-56AA.jpg | 100px]] | |||
| Chicxulub crater | 182 | 1.4% | [[File:Yucatan chix crater.jpg | 100px]] | Cause or contributor of the Cretaceous–Paleogene extinction event | ||||
| Sudbury Basin | 130 | 1% | [[File:Sudbury Wanapitei WorldWind.jpg | 100px]] | |||||
| Moon | |||||||||
| (moon of Earth) | Procellarum | 3000 | 3,470 km | 86% | [[File:PIA18822-LunarGrailMission-OceanusProcellarum-Rifts-Overall-20141001.jpg | 100px]] | Not confirmed as an impact basin. | ||
| South Pole–Aitken basin | 2500 | 70% | [[File:Aitken Kagu big.jpg | 100px]] | |||||
| Imbrium | 1145 | 33% | [[File:Imbrium location.jpg | 100px]] | |||||
| Mars | North Polar Basin | 10,600 × 8,500 km (6,550 × 5,250 mi) | 6,780 km | 125–155% | [[File:MarsTopoMap-PIA02031 modest.jpg | 100px]] | Not confirmed as an impact basin | ||
| Utopia | 3300 | 50% | [[File:Mars northern hemisphere topo.jpg | 100px]] | Largest confirmed impact basin on Mars and in the Solar System | ||||
| Hellas | 2300 | 34% | [[File:Hellas Planitia by the Viking orbiters.jpg | 100px]] | Largest visible crater in the Solar System | ||||
| Isidis | ~ 1900 | 28% | [[File:Syrtis-Isidis_zoom_64_pano.jpg | 100px]] | Heavily degraded to the northeast | ||||
| Argyre | 1700 | 25.1% | [[File:Argyre_MOLA_zoom_64.jpg | 100px]] | May have an outer ring 2750 km in diameter | ||||
| Vesta (asteroid) | Rheasilvia | 505 | 529 km (569 km) | 90% | [[File:A False-Color Topography of Vesta's South Pole.jpg | 100px]] | |||
| Veneneia | 395 | 70% | [[File:Rheasilvia and Veneneia.jpg | 100px]] | Partially obscured by Rheasilvia | ||||
| (dwarf planet) | Kerwan | 284 | 952 km | 30% | [[File:PIA19596-Ceres-DwarfPlanet-Dawn-2ndMappingOrbit-image28-20150625.jpg | 100px]] | Faint shallow crater, below the center of this image. | ||
| Yalode | 271 | 28% | [[File:Urvara and Yalode craters.jpg | 100px]] | |||||
| Hygiea (asteroid) | Serpens | 434 ± 14 km | 40% | [[File:Hygiea_VLT_Serpens_Calix_craters.png | 100px]] | ||||
| Ganymede | |||||||||
| (moon of Jupiter) | Epigeus | 343 | 5,270 km | 6.5% | [[File:Crater Epigeus on Ganimede.jpg | 100px]] | |||
| Callisto | |||||||||
| (moon of Jupiter) | Valhalla | 360 | 4,820 km | 7.5% | [[File:Valhalla crater on Callisto.jpg | 100px]] | |||
| Heimdall | 210 | 4% | (no good images have been taken) | ||||||
| Mimas | |||||||||
| (moon of Saturn) | Herschel | 139 | 396 km | 35% | [[File:Mimas moon.jpg | 100px]] | |||
| Tethys | |||||||||
| (moon of Saturn) | Odysseus | 445 | 1,060 km | 42% | [[File:Tethys N00151608 sharp.jpg | 100px]] | |||
| Dione | |||||||||
| (moon of Saturn) | Evander | 350 | 1,123 km | 34% | [[File:Evander crater, Dione.jpg | 100px]] | |||
| Rhea | |||||||||
| (moon of Saturn) | Mamaldi | 480 | 1,530 km | 31% | [[File:PIA07763 Rhea full globe5.jpg | 100px]] | |||
| Tirawa | 360 | 24% | [[File:PIA09819 Tirawa basin.jpg | 100px]] | |||||
| Titan | |||||||||
| (moon of Saturn) | Menrva | 392 | 5,150 km | 7.5% | [[File:Titancrater.jpg | 100px]] | |||
| Iapetus | |||||||||
| (moon of Saturn) | Turgis | 580 | 1,470 km | 40% | [[File:A Moon with Two Dark Sides.jpg | 100px]] | |||
| Engelier | 504 | 34% | [[File:Iapetus as seen by the Cassini probe - 20071008.jpg | 100px]] | |||||
| Gerin | 445 | 30% | [[File:Iapetus Roncevaux.jpg | 100px]] | Gerin is overlain by Engelier | ||||
| Falsaron | 424 | 29% | [[File:Iapetusnorth.jpg | 100px]] | |||||
| Titania | |||||||||
| (moon of Uranus) | Gertrude | 326 | 1,580 km | 21% | [[File:PIA00039 Titania.jpg | 100px]] | Little of Titania has been imaged, so it may well have larger craters. | ||
| Pluto (dwarf planet) | Sputnik Planitia basin | ca. 1,400 × 1,200 km | |||||||
| average: ~1,300 km | 2,377 km | 54.7% | [[File:PIA19936_-_Sputnik_Planum_region_on_Pluto.jpg | 100px]] | Partially infilled by convecting Nitrogen ice, heavily eroded | ||||
| Burney | 296 | 12.5% | [[File:Burney_Basin_Pluto.png | 100px]] | Heavily degraded, difficult to see | ||||
| Charon | |||||||||
| (moon of Pluto) | Dorothy | ca. 261 | 1,207 km | 21% | [[File:Charon_in_True_Color_-_High-Res.jpg | 100px]] | Crater at upper right overlapping Mordor Macula |
References
References
- Rheasilvia and Veneneia are 95% and 75% of the mean diameter of Vesta, 529 km. However, the mean is affected by the craters themselves. They are 89% and 69% the mean equatorial diameter of 569 km.
- [https://planetarynames.wr.usgs.gov/SearchResults?target=CERES&featureType=Crater,%20craters Planetary Names: Search Results]
- [https://planetarynames.wr.usgs.gov/Feature/14353?__fsk=-1014050833 USGS]
- [https://planetarynames.wr.usgs.gov/Feature/14751?__fsk=-1561211533 USGS]
- (December 2021). "Tectonism and Enhanced Cryovolcanic Potential Around a Loaded Sputnik Planitia Basin, Pluto". Journal of Geophysical Research: Planets.
- (August 2002). "Topography and morphology of the Argyre Basin, Mars: implications for its geologic and hydrologic history". Planetary and Space Science.
- (October 2008). "Surface and crater-exposed lithologic units of the Isidis Basin as mapped by coanalysis of THEMIS and TES derived data products". Journal of Geophysical Research.
- (1989-03-10). "Buried topography of Utopia, Mars: Persistence of a giant impact depression". Journal of Geophysical Research.
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