Real places.
Traceable references.
The scientific atlas focuses on 130,660 real research records at least 5 km across, with measured coordinates and diameters. Source identifiers are preserved. A mapped location is not automatically approved for commercial dedication.
The larger scientific atlas
Moon: 83,061 records at least 5 km across. This is a published extract of Stuart Robbins’s lunar catalogue, archived in 2022 by Riya Aggarwal and Lilly O’saurus. It retains the original scientific IDs. The atlas covers this ≥5 km extract and does not claim to include the complete approximately 1.3-million-record ≥1 km parent release.
Mars: 385,049 records at least 1 km across. These are the published data behind Michael Phillips’s Mars crater superposition graph v0.2.0, derived from the Robbins–Hynek 2020 release. Its data outputs are licensed CC BY 4.0. We downloaded and parsed every row, but do not claim a byte-for-byte original publisher archive or that every detection is suitable for a dedication. Of these source records, 47,599 are at least 5 km across and included in the atlas. Smaller records are retained only in the research source archive.
Both complete extracts are bundled as compressed, checksum-checked files. The server imports them into a separate indexed research database and returns at most 100 records per request. Source IDs, coordinates, positive diameters, full row counts, size distributions and exact duplicate geometry are checked. No generated coordinates or placeholder records are used.
Explore the scientific atlas · Pinned lunar extract · Pinned Mars release · Mars data attribution
Where the data comes from
Mars: a point shapefile exported from the USGS Gazetteer of Planetary Nomenclature, preserved in OpenPlanetaryData. The original Feature URL supplies the USGS ID, and the source attributes supply the centre coordinates and diameter.
Moon: USGS-derived coordinates and diameters preserved in AstroMoon, matched by exact scientific name to the USGS Gazetteer export dated 7 November 2024 in SAO/NASA ADS’s Planetary Names Pipeline. Only approved, positively identified crater matches with valid measurements are included.
Search expansion: a historical USGS Gazetteer CSV exported on 31 May 2020 and archived by the sphunif project. It adds 1,460 Moon and 1,007 Mars records not already in the initial reviewed seed. Existing scientific objects and earlier customer records are not overwritten.
Identifiers and coordinate convention
Our scientific key is usgs:moon:FeatureID or usgs:mars:FeatureID. Body plus scientific ID is unique. Longitudes are east-positive and normalized from 0…360° to −180…180°. Coordinates are shown on an equirectangular map; they are not terrestrial locations. Diameter is measured in kilometres. Displaying more decimal places does not increase source accuracy.
Orbital imagery and illustration
The selected-crater image viewer loads real orbital mosaics, separately from the illustrative globe artwork: Moon — NASA LRO / LROC WAC; Mars — MRO CTX, with a Viking global colour mosaic option. CTX attribution includes NASA/JPL, USGS, Caltech and Esri. Coverage and source resolution vary; a display marker identifies catalogue coordinates, not an independently surveyed crater rim. Loading failures are shown as failures rather than replaced by invented imagery.
- NASA Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter · LROC WAC global mosaic: mission viewer · layer metadata
- NASA/JPL · Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter CTX · USGS/Caltech/Esri: mission viewer · layer metadata
- NASA Ames / USGS · Viking MDIM 2.1 colourised mosaic: mission viewer · layer metadata
The homepage crater gallery, journal and scientific profiles use actual north-up orbital mosaic crops rather than rendered planet illustrations. Each photograph is centred on its preserved catalogue coordinates, with a field width of 1.65 crater diameters. Local longitude scaling corrects the display aspect at the centre latitude; it is not a surveyed orthophoto. Image details expose the layer, tile URLs, native crop dimensions, retrieval time and SHA-256. Visually selected gallery images show recognisable crater rims; this visual selection is separate from scientific, naming and commercial approval. Unavailable official imagery is skipped, never replaced by invented terrain.
Mars gallery cards use the NASA Ames / USGS Viking MDIM 2.1 colourised global mosaic. NASA Ames registered the original Viking colourised mosaic and blended it over the USGS monochrome MDIM 2.1 mosaic. The warm tones come from that official processed composite, not a CRATERNITY red filter. This is not a calibrated natural-colour exposure. Lunar gallery images retain the monochrome LROC source. The atlas still offers its higher-resolution monochrome CTX layer independently.
The globe artwork and coordinate-map illustration are distinct from these orbital images. The Mars globe uses a global texture from NASA’s 3D Resources repository. The immersive scene and portrait certificate use a lunar globe texture from the Three.js example collection. The 3D scene is an artistic view, not to scale or tied to real-time orbital positions. Certificate artwork is centred on the selected crater’s coordinates; the reticle and graticules are illustrative, not surveying evidence. No scientific agency endorses this service.
NASA is credited as an image source, not an endorser. Its logo, insignia and seal are not used as CRATERNITY branding. The NASA media guidelines and brand rules distinguish imagery from protected identifiers and third-party material. Attribution does not by itself grant commercial rights to every dataset, image or tile service. Per-source commercial-use and certificate/manufacturing review remains required before real sales.
Open-data attribution
USGS / IAU Gazetteer scientific facts are the original source. The OpenPlanetaryData compilation is distributed under the Open Database License. The scientific catalogue subset is available here under ODbL 1.0; it is separate from customers’ private order and dedication records. AstroMoon and SAO/NASA ADS source attributions are retained under their MIT licences.
Download the original reviewed 240-object subset (JSON) · ODbL 1.0 · AstroMoon attribution · ADS attribution · NASA resources statement · Three.js attribution
What a registry check proves
A verification checks our private registration number, scientific identity, original timestamp and the internal event-hash chain. It does not establish IAU recognition, property rights, an independently certified time, or priority in any future procedure. Future Recognition Commitment is a proposed policy, pending legal review.