Beer (crater on Mars)
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- This article refers to the crater on Mars. For other craters with this name, see Beer (crater).
Beer is a crater on Mars named in honor of the German astronomer Wilhelm Beer. It is located at 351.8°E 14.5°S.
Beer and collaborator Johann Heinrich Mädler produced the first reasonably good maps of Mars in the early 1830s. When doing so, they selected a particular feature for the prime meridian of their charts. Their choice was strengthened when Giovanni Schiaparelli used the same location in 1877 for his more famous maps of Mars. The feature was later called Sinus Meridiani ("Middle Bay"), but following the landing of the NASA probe MER-B Opportunity in 2004 is perhaps better known as Meridiani Planum.
Beer crater lies in the southwest of Meridiani Planum, about 8° from the prime meridian and about 10° west from Mädler crater. Schiaparelli crater is also in the region.
External links
- The Planet Mars: A History of Observation and Discovery, Chapter 4 (http://www.uapress.arizona.edu/onlinebks/mars/chap04.htm)