Main Page | See live article | Alphabetical index Copernicus, named after Nicolaus Copernicus, is one of the more prominent craters on the Moon. Copernicus is a large young crater visible with binoculars slightly northwest of the center of the Moon's Earth-facing hemisphere (20°W by 9°N). Copernicus is distinguished by its size and by the many bright rays pointing out from it. Copernicus is relatively young for a lunar crater, formed nearly a billion years ago by a colossal impact. The center of Copernicus is about 93 kilometers across. The formation of this crater marks the beginning of the Copernician period of the lunar geologic timescale. There is also a crater named Copernicus on Mars. This article is from Wikipedia. All text is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License.