Renoir (crater)

Renoir is a crater on the planet Mercury with a diameter of 219.88 km. Its center is located at 18.29 degrees south and 51.89 degrees west; its latitude ranges from 15.71 to 20.87 degrees south and its longitude ranges from 49.18 to 54.61 degrees west. Its name, after the French painter Pierre-Auguste Renoir (1841–1919), was adopted by the International Astronomical Union in 1976.

Renoir is a peak-ring basin on Mercury, one of several, including Raditladi Basin and Rachmaninoff. Though these basins are relatively young geologic features, Renoir is one of the oldest of its type. Because of its greater age, Renoir displays more of the effects of tectonics and later impact events than the other peak ring impact basins. It is thought to have formed at the end of the period with the highest meteor impact rates in Mercury's history. Located in the Kuiper quadrangle, it is classified as a "multiringed basin". Renoir also has an area of high reflectance, classified as a plain, resulting from previous volcanic activity on the planet. Along with Rachmaninoff, it is one of two basins on Mercury with a high-reflectance plain located entirely within the central peak ring.

Renoir has a concentric ring structure, meaning that it is also called a "concentric ring basin". Its interior rim is distinct, however, similar basins usually have a more distinct outer rim than inner rim. Basins like Renoir are known for having deep valleys in and around them. Mercury's lower radius and mass compared to other bodies like Mars mean that its basins - including Renoir and Rodin - have a greater diameter; consequently, the multi-ring basins on bodies like the Moon, including basins like Hertzsprung and Mare Orientale, are even larger than those on Mercury.