Mercury

(Dickens crater as imaged from the Messenger spacecraft / Image Source: NASA/Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory/Carnegie Institution of Washington)

Charles Dickens was the acclaimed English novelist who brought the world such classics as ‘Oliver Twist’, ‘A Christmas Carol’, ‘Great Expectations’, and ‘David Copperfield’, among others (another is alluded to in the title of this post, but you knew that). Widely considered the greatest Victorian period author, he has been honored in many ways throughout the past century-and-a-half.

Dickens might have come to expect many of the honors he received, and those dedicated posthumously, but one that I don’t suspect he ever looked forward to was having a crater on the planet Mercury named after him. Nearly all Mercurian craters are named after artists; writers, painters, composers, etc. Naturally, Dickens wouldn’t be excluded.

The name of the 78km-diameter crater, Dickens, was approved by the International Astronomical Union in 1976, which appears to be the first year they began the unique naming program. (For your general interest, recent “inductees” are a couple of my favorite writers, Khalil Gibran and Rudyard Kipling; having their surnames assigned to craters in 2009 and 2010, respectively.)

For a full list of the currently-291 named Mercurian craters, check out this list.