When the Artemis II astronauts flew around the far side of the moon (and, thankfully, back again!) the word ‘crater’ became a highly looked up word on the Merriam-Webster website.
A lunar crater is fundamentally a bowl-shaped depression in the surface, nearly always formed by a hypervelocity collision with an asteroid, comet, or meteoroid.
Although the term “crater” can also refer to volcanic vents on Earth, the Moon’s features are overwhelmingly the result of external impacts.
The vast majority of the estimated 1.85 million craters larger than one kilometre in diameter are impact structures.
Many of the moon’s craters have been given names by the International Astronomical Institution.
During their journey around the moon the four astronauts passed on to mission control their request that an unnamed crater on the moon be dedicated to Carroll Wiseman, the wife of mission commander Reid Wiseman.
She was only 46 years old when she died of cancer in 2020.
(And, yes, their request was granted.)
The word ‘crater’ has been part of English since around 1613.
It came into our language directly from an identical Latin word meaning ‘bowl or basin.’
Behind the Latin word is an ancient Greek word meaning ‘mixing bowl.’
When it first appeared ‘crater’ was only used to mean the mouth of a volcano; so, it meant a ‘bowl or funnel shaped hollow at the summit or on the side of a volcano, from which eruptions can take place.’
From this it came to mean ‘a depression formed by an impact (as of a meteorite).’
Which is exactly how the moon’s millions of craters were formed.
One of which is now called the Carroll Wiseman Crater—a nice touch!
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The latest issue of Australian Geographic is now at newsagents -- with a big beaked kookaburra on the front cover, and inside my two small columns on 'Ozwords' and 'Placenames.'
BOOKS:
* My latest book is called Pray Like This. To look at prayer I do what I do in these Ozword columns: I go through the most famous prayer in the world (The Lord’s Prayer, also known as the Our Father) and unpack it word by word—each chapter being a short word-study on a key word in that prayer. There is a total of 21 words studies in all. To find out more, here’s a link to the publisher’s website (where you can buy a copy if you wish): Pray Like This – matthiasmedia.com.au
* My book is Sherlock Holmes: 5-Minute Mysteries -- containing 50 new stories I have written about the great detective. You can find it on Amazon. Just go to Amazon and type in Sherlock Holmes: 5-Minute Mysteries in the search panel. Or use this link: h Amazon.com.au : Sherlock Holmes 5-Minute Mysteries Kel Richards
* My book "Defending the Gospel" is now in a second, fully revised, edition. You can find it here: Defending the Gospel – matthiasmedia.com.au
* If you're looking for my recent book "Flash Jim" you'll find it here -- Flash Jim, The astonis
hing story of the convict fraudster who wrote Australia's first dictionary by Kel Richards | 9781460759769 | Booktopia
* You can find all Kel's books currently in print here -- Booktopia Search Results for 'kel richards'. We sell books, hardback, paperback, audio, CDs.
* And also here -- Amazon.com.au : Kel Richards
* And you'll find more here -- Search: 4 results found for "Kel Richards" – matthiasmedia.com.au
* Many of Kel's out of print books can be found at ABE Books -- Kel Richards - AbeBooks explaining words explain the term
BY THE WAY...
If you'd like to see my A-Z list of Aussie slang, you'll find it here in the Australian Geographic website -- A-Z list of Aussie slang. Here’s the link: The A-Z of Aussie slang - Australian Geographic
The liveliest part of this website is usually the Q and A page -- be sure to check it out from time to time.
