Tuesday 2 January 2018

A crater on Mars is named after a city in Qatar!

There is a crater in Mars that is named after a city in Qatar. The circular crater is named after Dukhan and measures 34.04-km in diameter.

The name was adopted and approved by International Astronomical Union (AIU) on November 26, 2012.


After many missions studying Mars since the 1960s, many countries have applied for naming craters on Mars.

In Gulf countries, only Qatar and Oman have craters in Mars named after cities. Crater “Dank” is named after a place in Oman.

Here some other craters names: Degana, Bhor and Broach are named after Indian cities. Ehden after a Lebanese town. Chaman and Gwash are in Pakistan. Camiling is in Philippines, Bam is a town in Kermān province of Iran, Dush in Egypt and Alnif in Morocco also gets a carter. Check the full list of craters on Mars.



Mars surface contains large numbers of craters, Many of the craters are different than on our moon and other moons since Mars contains ice under the ground, especially in the higher latitudes.

Some of the types of craters that have special shapes due to impact into the ice-rich ground are ‘’pedestal craters’’, ‘’rampart craters’’, ‘’expanded craters’’, and ‘’LARLE craters’’.

(Source: The Peninsula)

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