Aśvaghosa is an impact crater

Impact crater

In the broadest sense, the term impact crater can be applied to any depression, natural or manmade, resulting from the high velocity impact of a projectile with a larger body...

 on Mercury

Mercury (planet)

Mercury is the innermost and smallest planet in the Solar System, orbiting the Sun once every 87.969 Earth days. The orbit of Mercury has the highest eccentricity of all the Solar System planets, and it has the smallest axial tilt. It completes three rotations about its axis for every two orbits...

, 90 kilometers in diameter. It is located at 10.4°, 21°W, south of the crater Abu Nuwas

Abu Nuwas (crater)

Abu Nuwas is an impact crater on the planet Mercury, 116 kilometers in diameter. It is located at 17.4°N, 20.4°W. It is named after the Arab poet Abu Nuwas, and its name was approved by the International Astronomical Union in 1976...

 and southwest of the crater Molière

Molière (crater)

Molière is an impact crater on the planet Mercury, 132 kilometers in diameter. It is located at 15.6°N, 16.9°W, south of the crater Rodin, southeast of the crater Abu Nuwas, and northeast of the crater Asvaghosa. The nearly circular rim of the crater is cut off into a flat edge on its southern and...

. It is a nearly circular formation, and its rim remains intact, except where it is broken at its southern side, and at its northern side by an indentation from two conjoined craterlets. On the crater floor is a central mountain that rises to multiple peaks. The crater is named for India

India

India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...

n philosopher and poet Aśvaghoṣa

Asvaghosa

' was an Indian philosopher-poet, born in Saketa in northern India to a Brahmin family. He is believed to have been the first Sanskrit dramatist, and is considered the greatest Indian poet prior to Kālidāsa. He was the most famous in a group of Buddhist court writers, whose epics rivaled the...

, and its name was adopted by the International Astronomical Union

International Astronomical Union

The International Astronomical Union IAU is a collection of professional astronomers, at the Ph.D. level and beyond, active in professional research and education in astronomy...

in 1976.