Himeros (crater)

Himeros, also nicknamed the Saddle,^[4] is a large impact crater on the asteroid Eros. It is centered at roughly 21.20°N, 77.7°E, on Eros's eastern "hemisphere." The crater is named after Himeros of Greek mythology, one of seven Erotes, attendant to Eros, and the personification of the longing for love. The name Himeros was officially approved by the International Astronomical Union (IAU) in 2003.^[1]

Himeros

Himeros as viewed by NEAR Shoemaker.
Feature type	Impact crater
Location	Eros
Coordinates	21.20°N 77.7°E / 21.20; 77.7[1]
Diameter	11 km[2]
Depth	~1.5 km[3]: 1654
Discoverer	NEAR Shoemaker
Eponym	Himeros

Geology and characteristics

At roughly 11 kilometres (6.8 miles) in diameter, Himeros is the largest identified feature on Eros. The crater is so large that it nearly exceeds the diameter of Eros in the north–south direction.^[a] As a result, Himeros's northern and southern rims are degraded or absent, giving the crater an elongated shape. The southwestern rim of Himeros is interrupted by Shoemaker, a smaller and younger impact crater roughly 7 kilometres (4.3 mi) wide. The rim of Himeros, like the rims of Eros's second- and third-largest impact craters (Shoemaker and Psyche, respectively), is very rounded and smooth.^{[3]: 1654–1655} Within Himeros are several features. An extensive ridge, Rahe Dorsum, begins within the floor of Himeros before continuing over the crater rim towards Psyche. Given Rahe Dorsum's straightness, it likely represents a sheet of strong material that was more resistant to the violent formation of Himeros, surviving as a ridge.^[2]

Himeros's immense size relative to Eros means that the impact event that created it likely had widespread consequences for the asteroid. In 2015, a team of astronomers led by Yasui Minami proposed that seismic waves from the Himeros impact event would have shaken the entire asteroid, with the modelled peak ground acceleration exceeding that of Eros's surface gravity up to 134 kilometres (83 miles) from the crater. As a result, surface material on Eros likely moved globally because of Himeros's formation.^[6] Himeros's central location on Eros means that its formation should have obliterated most craters smaller than 500 metres (1,600 feet) in diameter. Though the interior of Himeros has relatively few craters, that there are many small craters on Eros indicates that Himeros is ancient. The low crater density within Himeros is therefore likely due to the formation of Shoemaker.^[7]

Notes

1. Eros's dimensions are roughly 34.4 × 11.2 × 11.2 km.^[5]