The Moon, named after South Africa

2 named features. The International Astronomical Union records why each name was chosen, and those reasons are printed below exactly as they were approved.

FEATURES · 2

NAME	TYPE	SIZE	WHY THAT NAME
van den Bos	crater	25.2 km	Willem Hendrik; South African astronomer (1896-1974).
Theiler	crater	8.3 km	Max; South African bacteriologist; Nobel laureate (1899-1972).

Names and their origins come from the IAU Gazetteer of Planetary Nomenclature (USGS Astrogeology), retrieved 2026-08-14.
All named features ｜ KUON THE MOON map ｜ About the map ｜ Every landing site on the Moon

DATA: IAU / USGS Astrogeology · NASA LRO LOLA