Crater on Mars named for author Isaac Asimov

Ken Edgett, a scientist at Malin Space Science Systems and a member of the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter Mars Color Imager/Context Camera team, has written an extensive article for the blog of The Planetary Society about the newly named Asimov Crater on Mars. The crater, named for Martian SF author and scientist Isaac Asimov on May 4, 2009, by the International Astronomical Union (IAU), is located in Noachis Terra on Mars and is 84-kilometers wide. To learn more about Asimov Crater and the criteria for naming a crater on Mars after a person, read Edgett’s article.

To learn about other craters on Mars that are named for Martian SF authors (Tolstoy, Burroughs, Heinlein, Lasswitz, Weinbaum, Wells), please see my blog post from September 2007: "Craters in Honor of Authors".

Isaac Asimov wrote several pieces of science fiction about Mars, including the short stories “The Martian Way” (1952), “I’m in Marsport Without Hilda” (1957), and “Latter-Day Martian Chronicles” (1990). He also penned “The Romance of Mars”, a nonfiction essay that served as the introduction to the anthology Mars, We Love You: Tales of Mars, Men and Martians (1971).

Ken Edgett’s first science fiction short story, "Joe the Martian Goes to the Moon", appeared in Return to Luna (2008), an anthology edited by Eric T. Reynolds and published by Hadley Rille Books.

Thanks to the SF Site for the link about Asimov Crater!