Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun A long, narrow, roughly straight channel or groove on the surface of a solar system body like a planet or moon.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun (Astron.) One of certain narrow, crooked valleys seen, by aid of the telescope, on the surface of the moon.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun planetology A long, narrow depression in that resembles a channel, found on the surface of various lunar and planetary bodies.

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[German Rille; see rei- in Indo-European roots, from Low German rille; see rei- in Indo-European roots.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From the German Rille ("channel").

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Examples

  • The remnants of volcanic tubes on the moon whose roofs have capsized and a trench or valley is created is called a rille system, which is a groove or long narrow depression on the lunar surface.

    The Hindu - Front Page 2010

  • The remnants of volcanic tubes on the moon whose roofs have capsized and a trench or valley is created is called a rille system, which is a groove or long narrow depression on the lunar surface.

    The Hindu - Front Page 2010

  • The remnants of volcanic tubes on the moon whose roofs have capsized and a trench or valley is created is called a rille system, which is a groove or long narrow depression on the lunar surface.

    The Hindu - Front Page 2010

  • The remnants of volcanic tubes on the moon whose roofs have capsized and a trench or valley is created is called a rille system, which is a groove or long narrow depression on the lunar surface.

    The Hindu - Front Page 2010

  • It sits in the middle of a rille, suggesting the hole leads into a lava tube as wide as 370 metres across … Since the tubes may be hundreds of metres wide, they could provide plenty of space for an underground lunar outpost.

    Entrance Found to Underground Lunar Tunnel 2009

  • "It looks like once we round this bend we've got another two side canyons, plus half a dozen smaller channels to go past, and then we can head up the rille and straight out for Pavonis."

    Who Do You Say I Am 2010

  • Two big ones and six little ones; how difficult could it be to find the rille?

    Who Do You Say I Am 2010

  • He spent the next quarter kilometer anticipating Bentley's apology when they arrived at the correct rille, but his expectations fizzled when they rounded the bend and saw a debris-choked water channel that not even a Sandship could navigate.

    Who Do You Say I Am 2010

  • The hole is 65 meters in diameter and is located in the volcanic Marius Hills region on the near side of the moon, right in the middle of a long sinuous rille.

    Kaguya Discovers a Lava Tube on the Moon | Universe Today 2009

  • The valley floor is a flat, lava-flooded surface that is divided by a slender, cleft-like rille.

    Santa Spied at Lunar North Pole… | Universe Today 2009

Comments

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  • "We sort of came up a very slight incline to the rille rim. It was not anything I would call a levee. I think we were quite aware of coming to the rille rim when we got there, and it seemed to me that it was a very slight incline. Then it broke to maybe a 3- to 4-degree slope down towards the rille to the edge where it broke on down to another inflection point, down to 25 degrees into the bottom."

    - David R. Scott, comments in 1971 debrief of Apollo 15 mission, 'Hadley Rille', hq.nasa.gov.

    October 8, 2008