Airy (Martian crater)

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Airy is an impact crater on Mars. The diameter of just south of the Martian equator lying crater is slightly more than 43 kilometers. Within Airy is the crater Airy -0, which has a diameter of 500 meters and defines the location of the prime meridian on Mars.

Airy is within the striking dark appearing out of the earth " Meridian Bay " ( Sinus Meridiani ). This was used by the German astronomer Wilhelm Beer and Johann Heinrich Mädler their carried out in the 1830s observations as a feature, by means of which they determined the period of rotation of Mars. This simply of Beer and Mäder "A" mentioned feature was used in 1877 by Giovanni Schiaparelli establishing the Nullmerdians for its Mars tickets. The data from Mariner 9 in 1972 necessitated a more precise definition, the crater Airy -0 was used for clarification.

Airy is named after the English astronomer George Biddell Airy, its used for observations at the Royal Greenwich Observatory definition of earthly Nullmerdians was adopted internationally in 1884.