Lermontov (crater)

{{short description|Crater on Mercury}}

{{Infobox feature on celestial object

| name = Lermontov

| image = Lermontov crater MESSENGER.png

| caption = MESSENGER image from its second flyby in October 2008

| location = Kuiper quadrangle, Mercury

| type = Impact crater

| coordinates = {{coord|15.24|N|48.94|W|globe:mercury_type:landmark|display=inline,title}}

| diameter = {{cvt|166|km}}

| eponym = Mikhail Yuryevich Lermontov

}}

Lermontov is an impact crater on the planet Mercury. The crater is named after Mikhail Yuryevich Lermontov, a 19th-century Russian poet. The name was approved by the International Astronomical Union in 1976.{{cite web |url = http://planetarynames.wr.usgs.gov/Feature/63525 |title = Lermontov |publisher = IAU/NASA/USGS |work = Gazetteer of Planetary Nomenclature |access-date = 22 August 2022}}NASA World Wind 1.4. NASA Ames Research Center, 2007.Blewett, D. T., B. R. Hawke, P. G. Lucey, and M. S. Robinson (2007), [http://www.agu.org/pubs/crossref/2007/2006JE002713.shtml A Mariner 10 color study of Mercurian craters], J. Geophys. Res., 112, E02005, {{doi|10.1029/2006JE002713}}.

The crater floor is somewhat brighter than the exterior surface and is smooth with several irregularly shaped depressions. Such features, similar to those found on the floor of Praxiteles, may be evidence of past explosive volcanic activity on the crater floor. Lermontov appears reddish in enhanced-color views, suggesting that it has a different composition from the surrounding surface.{{cite web |url=http://messenger.jhuapl.edu/gallery/sciencePhotos/image.php?page=1&gallery_id=2&image_id=315 |title=MESSENGER: MErcury Surface, Space ENvironment, GEochemistry, and Ranging |access-date=2009-07-15 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160304031820/http://messenger.jhuapl.edu/gallery/sciencePhotos/image.php?page=1&gallery_id=2&image_id=315 |archive-date=2016-03-04 }}

To the north of Lermontov are Proust and Bek craters. To the south is Chaikovskij, and to the southwest is Giotto.