Pasteur is a large lunar impact crater, approximately 233 kilometers in diameter, belonging to the category termed a walled plain. It was named after French chemist and microbiologist Louis Pasteur. It lies on the far side of the Moon as seen from the Earth, just beyond the eastern limb. The vicinity of this crater is occasionally brought into view from Earth due to librations, although not much detail can be seen.
Description
Lying along the southern rim of Pasteur is the smaller crater Backlund. Just to the southeast is Hilbert, another walled plain, nearly two-thirds the diameter of Pasteur. To the southwest is the prominent crater Sklodowska, and to the east is Meitner.
This formation dates to the Pre-Nectarian period of the lunar geologic timescale.
Satellite craters
thumb|Oblique [[Apollo 17 Mapping Camera image of Pasteur crater]]
thumb|Oblique view from [[Apollo 15]]
By convention these features are identified on lunar maps by placing the letter on the side of the crater midpoint that is closest to Pasteur.
{| class="wikitable" style="text-align: center;"
! Pasteur
! Latitude
! Longitude
! Diameter
! Ref
|-
| A
| 7.0° S
| 105.7° E
| 25.73 km
|
|-
| B
| 8.2° S
| 105.8° E
| 19.44 km
|
|-
| D
| 8.8° S
| 108.8° E
| 37.62 km
|
|-
| E
| 10.8° S
| 108.5° E
| 18.9 km
|
|-
| G
| 11.6° S
| 105.7° E
| 20.73 km
|
|-
| H
| 12.1° S
| 106.4° E
| 21.6 km
|
|-
| M
| 12.2° S
| 104.6° E
| 11.33 km
|
|-
| Q
| 13.6° S
| 101.5° E
| 23.35 km
|
|-
| S
| 12.2° S
| 102.0° E
| 28.76 km
|
|-
| U
| 9.8° S
| 101.5° E
| 37.88 km
|
|-
| V
| 9.0° S
| 100.8° E
| 22.49 km
|
|-
| Y
| 8.0° S
| 103.5° E
| 49.85 km
|
|-
| Z
| 6.8° S
| 104.2° E
| 13.98 km
|
|}
Pasteur D is characterised by an extremely high rockfall density by lunar standards.
Pasteur T was renamed Anders' Earthrise in October 2018.
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