Airy-0

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Airy-0
Three images of Airy-0 taken by, from A to C, Mariner 9, Viking 1 and Mars Global Surveyor.
Three images of Airy-0 taken by, from A to C, Mariner 9, Viking 1 and Mars Global Surveyor. Airy-0 is the larger crater toward the top-center in each frame.
Region Inside Airy Crater
Coordinates 5.1° S, 0° E
Diameter 0.5km
Eponym Sir George Biddell Airy
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Airy-0 is a crater on Mars whose location defines the position of the prime meridian of that planet. Airy-0 is about 0.5 kilometers across and lies within the larger crater Airy in the region Sinus Meridiani.

Airy crater was named in honor of the British Astronomer Royal Sir George Biddell Airy (1801-1892), who in 1850 built the "transit circle" telescope at Greenwich. The location of that telescope was subsequently chosen to define the location of Earth's prime meridian.

The selection of this crater as Mars' prime meridian was made by Merton Davies in 1969 based on Mariner 6 and 7 photographs.[1]

[edit] References

  1. ^ Morton, Oliver (2002). Mapping Mars: Science, Imagination, and the Birth of a World. New York: Picador USA, 22-23. ISBN 0312245513. 

[edit] External links


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