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Limtoc

Crater on Phobos

Mars' larger moon Phobos is dominated by the crater Stickney, whose diameter of some 27km means that it occupies a significant proportion of the small moon's surface area. After the impact that created Stickney, Phobos was evidently struck a second time in the same area, producing a much smaller crater within Stickney's walls, and this crater has been given the name Limtoc.

While not particularly large even by comparison to other craters on Phobos, Limtoc stands out as the only major impact feature within the broad ring formed by Stickney's crater walls. Several of the craters of Phobos are named for characters from Swift's Gulliver's Travels, and this is the source of Limtoc's slightly peculiar name: it originally belonged to a Lilliputian general in that book.

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