Mercury's Poe Crater Honors American Poet and Writer Edgar Allan Poe

Summary: Mercury's Poe Crater honors American poet and writer Edgar Allan Poe, whose accomplishments include pioneering the detective fiction genre in English.

High-resolution targeted color observation image of Mercury's Poe Crater, obtained July 3, 2011, by MESSENGER space probe, highlights blue-white speckling by tiny hollows, depressions haloed by bright (high albedo) materials, in the crater's rim; credit NASA/Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory/Carnegie Institution of Washington: NASA Goddard Space Flight Center (NASA Goddard Photo and Video), CC BY 2.0 Generic, via Flickr

Mercury's Poe Crater honors American poet and writer Edgar Allan Poe, whose three short stories with ratiocinative (Latin ratiocinor, “to reckon, argue”) character C. Auguste Dupin pioneered the detective fiction genre in English.

Poe Crater is located in the northern part of Caloris Planitia (Hot Plain) on the solar system's smallest planet, Mercury. Both hummocky and smooth material have infilled Poe Crater.

Poe Crater presents a clear, continuous rim. Superposed craters dot the interior floor. The five largest superposed craters reside in northern Poe Crater. Two superposed craters flank the largest superposed crater in its cut across Poe Crater's northern rim. Two fairly equally-sized superposed craters, located to the southeast of the largest superposed rim crater, gouge Poe Crater's interior floor.

The International Astronomical Union (IAU) has approved a planetographic coordinate system for Mercury. In his online Encyclopedia of Science, British astronomer David Darling explains that surface features on oblate (Late Latin: oblātus, ob, “in front of, before” plus lātus, “broad, wide”) planets are measured according to the planetographic coordinate system. As an oblate planet, Mercury exhibit flattened poles.

The planetographic coordinate system easily converts to the planetocentric coordinate system, according to Darling. The planetographic coordinate system increases longitude to the west whereas the planetocentric system increases longitude to the east.

Poe Crater is centered at 43.76 degrees north latitude, 200.9 degrees west longitude, according to the International Astronomical Union’s (IAU) Gazetteer of Planetary Nomenclature. The Mercurian impact crater marks northernmost and southernmost latitudes at 44.69 degrees north and 42.62 degrees north, respectively. It posts easternmost and westernmost longitudes of 199.67 degrees west and 202.13 degrees west, respectively. Poe Crater's diameter measures 77 kilometers.

Poe Crater occupies northern Caloris Planitia (Hot Plain). The Mercurian plain is located in the Raditladi quadrangle, one of the 15 quadrangles into which Mercury's surface has been divided. Caloris Planitia is centered at 31.65 degrees north latitude, 198.02 degrees west longitude. Mercury's Hot Plain establishes northernmost and southernmost latitudes at 48.6 degrees north and 15.54 degrees north, respectively. Its easternmost and westernmost longitudes reach 176.3 degrees west and 217.97 degrees west, respectively. Caloris Planitia spans 1,500 kilometers.

(left to right) neighborly trio of Munch, Sander and Poe craters in enhanced color mosaic (Image IDs 458397, 458398, 458399, 460433, 460434, 460435) obtained July 3 and July 4, 2011, by Wide Angle Camera (WAC) of the Mercury Dual Imaging System (MDIS); NASA ID PIA19421; image addition date 2015-04-16; image credit NASA/Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory/Carnegie Institution of Washington: May be used for any purpose without prior permission, via NASA JPL Photojournal

Poe Crater forms a distinctive trio with Munch Crater and Sander Crater in northern Caloris Planitia. Closer neighbor Sander Crater lies to the west-northwest of Poe Crater. Munch Crater neighbors to the northwest of Munch Crater.

Sander Crater, the middle crater in the trio, is centered at 42.43 degrees north latitude, 205.44 degrees west longitude. It obtains its northernmost and southernmost latitudes at 42.97 degrees north and 41.88 degrees north, respectively. Its easternmost and westernmost longitudes occur at 204.68 degrees west and 206.2 degrees west, respectively. Sander Crater has a diameter of 47 kilometers.

Munch Crater anchors the trio's southwesternmost point. Its northernmost and southernmost latitudes extend to 41.15 degrees north and 39.81 degrees north, respectively. Its easternmost and westernmost longitudes span 206.3 degrees west and 208.06 degrees west, respectively. Munch Crater's diameter measures 57 kilometers.

The International Astronomical Union (IAU) officializes names of features on solar system bodies. The international association of professional (Ph.D. level or beyond) astronomers assigns categories or themes to solar system features. The IAU's online Gazetteer of Planetary Nomenclature, maintained by the U.S. Geological Survey's Astrogeology Science Center, identifies the naming guidelines for craters on the solar system's smallest planet, Mercury: "Artists, musicians, painters, and authors who have made outstanding or fundamental contributions to their field and have been recognized as art historically significant figures for more than 50 years."

The IAU approved Poe Crater's name Nov. 20, 2008. The Mercurian impact crater honors American poet and writer Edgar Allan Poe (Jan. 19, 1809-Oct. 7, 1849), whose literary accomplishments include memorable poems such as "The Raven" (published Jan. 29, 1845) and "Annabel Lee" (first published, posthumously, Oct. 9, 1849) and the first detective fiction in English, The Murders in the Rue Morgue (April 1841. Poe revisited C. Auguste Dupin's ratiocinative skills in The Mystery of Marie Rogêt (November 1842). He published The Purloined Letter (December 1844) as his third "tale of ratiocination."

The takeaways for Poe Crater's honoring American poet and writer Edgar Allan Poe are that the Mercurian impact crater's name adheres to the International Astronomical Union's (IAU) convention of naming Mercury's craters after historically significant artists, authors and musicians; that a cluster of two superposed rim craters and two superposed interior floor craters distinguish Poe Crater; and that Poe Crater forms a noticeable trio with neighbors Munch and Sander craters in northern Caloris Planitia (Plain of Heat).

Mosaic of Poe Crater's central region from images (EN0218161456M, EN0218161460M, EN0218161464M) obtained July 3, 2011, by MESSENGER Narrow Angle Camera (NAC), shows cluster of five large superposed craters (three on rim, two on interior floor); north is up: James Stuby (Jstuby/MESSENGER), Public Domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Acknowledgment

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

Image credits:

High-resolution targeted color observation image of Mercury's Poe Crater, obtained July 3, 2011, by MESSENGER space probe, highlights blue-white speckling by tiny hollows, depressions haloed by bright (high albedo) materials, in the crater's rim; credit NASA/Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory/Carnegie Institution of Washington: NASA Goddard Space Flight Center (NASA Goddard Photo and Video), CC BY 2.0 Generic, via Flickr @ https://www.flickr.com/photos/gsfc/8391893529; CC BY 2.0 Generic, via Wikimedia Commons @ https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:A_Toast_to_Dear_Old_Poe_-_From_Planet_Mercury.png

(left to right) neighborly trio of Munch, Sander and Poe craters in enhanced color mosaic (Image IDs 458397, 458398, 458399, 460433, 460434, 460435) obtained July 3 and July 4, 2011, by Wide Angle Camera (WAC) of the Mercury Dual Imaging System (MDIS); NASA ID PIA19421; image addition date 2015-04-16; image credit NASA/Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory/Carnegie Institution of Washington: May be used for any purpose without prior permission, via NASA JPL Photojournal @ https://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA19421; Generally not subject to copyright in the United States; may use this material for educational or informational purposes, including photo collections, textbooks, public exhibits, computer graphical simulations and Internet Web pages; general permission extends to personal Web pages, via NASA Image and Video Library @ https://images.nasa.gov/details/PIA19421

Mosaic of Poe Crater's central region from images (EN0218161456M, EN0218161460M, EN0218161464M) obtained July 3, 2011, by MESSENGER Narrow Angle Camera (NAC), shows cluster of five large superposed craters (three on rim, two on interior floor); north is up; image's approximate width at 39 kilometers: James Stuby (Jstuby/MESSENGER), Public Domain, via Wikimedia Commons @ https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Poe_crater_MESSENGER_NAC_mosaic.jpg

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