Lamb Crater Honors British Mathematician and Physicist Sir Horace Lamb

Summary: Lamb Crater honors British mathematician and physicist Sir Horace Lamb, whose achievements include creating the physics term vorticity in 1916.

Detail of oblique view, obtained 1971, just after trans-Earth injection (TEI), with Apollo 15 mapping camera, shows Lamb Crater (upper right) with satellites Lamb A (lower right of parent), Lamb G (lower left of parent) and Lamb E (below Lamb G); NASA ID AS15-M-2753: James Stuby (Jstuby), Public Domain (CC0 1.0), via Wikimedia Commons

Lamb Crater honors British mathematician and physicist Sir Horace Lamb, whose writings include classic physics textbooks and who introduced the physics term vorticity in 1916 in his reference work on fluid dynamics, Hydrodynamics.

Lamb Crater is a lunar crater in the far side’s southwestern quadrant. The crater’s generally circular rim encloses an interior floor flooded by basaltic lava. Craterlets dot the floor. A small crater occupies the south-southeastern floor.

Lamb Crater is centered at minus 42.67 degrees south latitude, 100.94 degrees east longitude, according to the International Astronomical Union’s (IAU) Gazetteer of Planetary Nomenclature. The southern hemisphere crater records northernmost and southernmost latitudes of minus 41.07 degrees south and minus 44.32 degrees south, respectively. It registers easternmost and westernmost longitudes of 103.27 degrees east and 98.62 degrees east, respectively. Lamb Crater’s diameter measures 103.55 kilometers.

Lamb Crater parents three satellites. All three satellites round their parent’s eastern half.

The Lamb Crater system resides in southern Mare Australe (Southern Sea) beyond the near side’s southeastern limb. The Southern Sea overlaps the moon’s near and far sides.

Mare Australe is centered at minus 47.77 degrees south latitude, 91.99 degrees east longitude. The dark, basaltic plain’s northernmost and southernmost latitudes extend from minus 31.84 degrees south to minus 64.2 degrees south, respectively. Its easternmost and westernmost longitudes reach 113.36 degrees east and 70.43 degrees east, respectively. Mare Australe’s length spans 996.84 kilometers.

Jenner Crater resides near Lamb’s western rim. Jenner’s placement to the west of Lamb and just east of the near side’s southeastern limb qualifies it for visibility to Earth-based observers under favorable libration and lighting conditions. Libration references the expanded surface visibility, extending into the far side, that accompanies changes in the perspectives of Earth-based observers.

Jenner Crater is centered at minus 42.01 degrees south latitude, 95.98 degrees east longitude. The terraced crater obtains northernmost and southernmost latitudes of minus 40.8 degrees south and minus 43.22 degrees south, respectively. Its easternmost and westernmost longitudes occur at 97.62 degrees east and 94.35 degrees east, respectively. Jenner Crater has a diameter of 73.66 kilometers.

Lamb Crater honors British mathematician and physicist Sir Horace Lamb (Nov. 27, 1849-Dec. 4, 1934). The International Astronomical Union (IAU) approved Lamb as the crater’s official name in 1970, during the organization’s XIVth (14th) General Assembly, held in Brighton, United Kingdom, from Tuesday, Aug. 18, to Thursday, Aug. 27. Prior to its official naming, Lamb Crater was designated as Crater 404. The IAU approved the letter designations of the Lamb Crater system’s three satellites in 2006.

Lamb published A Treatise on the Mathematical Theory of the Motions of Fluids in 1879. In his preface, he traced the origin of the work to 1874. During lectures that he delivered in Cambridge University’s Trinity College, he realized the need for a systematic consideration of the current state of fluid motion theory.

The reference work’s title change to Hydrodynamics, beginning with the second edition in 1895, reflected extensive “additions and alterations” in the subject. As a subdiscipline of fluid dynamics, hydrodynamics (Ancient Greek: ὑδρο-, hudro-, from ὕδωρ, húdōr, “water” + δυναμικός, dunamikós, “powerful”) focuses on the motion of liquids.

The fourth edition of Hydrodyanmics appeared in 1916. In his preface, Lamb highlighted his introduction of a new term, vorticity, as a replacement for rotation, to distinguish the vector (ξ, η, ζ [xi, eta, zeta]) from components with half of the velocity values.

The Cambridge University Press website offers the sixth edition of Hydrodynamics, published in November 1993. The website describes Hydrodynamics as a “definitive reference work” and as a “relevant, timeless classic.”

Lamb was elected as a Fellow of The Royal Society (FRAS) on Dec. 6, 1884. The Royal Society website lists Lamb’s research fields as “applied mathematics, geophysics.”

Horace Lamb became Sir Horace Lamb with his knighting in 1931.

The takeaways for Lamb Crater, which honors British mathematician and physicist Sir Horace Lamb, are that the lunar crater resides on the far side, just beyond the near side’s southeastern limb; that Lamb Crater parents three satellites in southern Mare Australe (Southern Sea); and that the crater’s namesake introduced a new term, vorticity, in the fourth edition of his still-in-print, definitive work, Hydrodynamics, published in 1916.

Detail of Shaded Relief and Color-Coded Topography Map shows Lamb Crater, with neighbor Jenner Crater, in lunar far side's southern Mare Australe, just beyond near side's southeastern limb: U.S. Geological Survey, Public Domain, via USGS Astrogeology Science Center / Gazetteer of Planetary Nomenclature

Acknowledgment

My special thanks to talented artists and photographers/concerned organizations who make their fine images available on the internet.

Image credits:

Detail of oblique view, obtained 1971, just after trans-Earth injection (TEI), with Apollo 15 mapping camera, shows Lamb Crater (upper right) with satellites Lamb A (lower right of parent), Lamb G (lower left of parent) and Lamb E (below Lamb G); NASA ID AS15-M-2753: James Stuby (Jstuby), Public Domain (CC0 1.0), via Wikimedia Commons @ https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Lamb_crater_AS15-M-2753.jpg

Detail of Shaded Relief and Color-Coded Topography Map shows Lamb Crater, with neighbor Jenner Crater, in lunar far side's southern Mare Australe, just beyond near side's southeastern limb: U.S. Geological Survey, Public Domain, via USGS Astrogeology Science Center / Gazetteer of Planetary Nomenclature @ https://planetarynames.wr.usgs.gov/images/moon_farside.pdf

For further information:

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Available @ https://planetarynames.wr.usgs.gov/Feature/2819

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Available @ https://planetarynames.wr.usgs.gov/Feature/3252

International Astronomical Union (IAU) / U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) Gazetteer of Planetary Nomenclature. “Lamb A.” USGS Astrogeology Science Center > Gazetteer of Planetary Nomenclature > Nomenclature > The Moon. Last updated Oct. 18, 2010.
Available @ https://planetarynames.wr.usgs.gov/Feature/10571

International Astronomical Union (IAU) / U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) Gazetteer of Planetary Nomenclature. “Lamb E.” USGS Astrogeology Science Center > Gazetteer of Planetary Nomenclature > Nomenclature > The Moon. Last updated Oct. 18, 2010.
Available @ https://planetarynames.wr.usgs.gov/Feature/10572

International Astronomical Union (IAU) / U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) Gazetteer of Planetary Nomenclature. “Lamb G.” USGS Astrogeology Science Center > Gazetteer of Planetary Nomenclature > Nomenclature > The Moon. Last updated Oct. 18, 2010.
Available @ https://planetarynames.wr.usgs.gov/Feature/10573

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