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Ishtar Terra is one of the three continental regions on the planet Venus, the others being
NASA Map of Venus:
Surface features of Venus Inanna {{Venus-stub
Ishtar Terra is one of the three continental regions on the planet Venus, the others being Aphrodite Terra
Aphrodite Terra is one of the three continental regions on the planet Venus, the others being Ishtar Terra and Lada Terra. It is named for Aphrodite, the Greek equivalent of the goddess Venus, and is found near the equator of the planet. Aphrod ...
and Lada Terra. It is a highland region named after the Akkadian goddess Ishtar
Inanna, also sux, ð’€ð’Š©ð’Œ†ð’€ð’ˆ¾, nin-an-na, label=none is an List of Mesopotamian deities, ancient Mesopotamian goddess of love, war, and fertility. She is also associated with beauty, sex, Divine law, divine justice, and political p ...
, and is found in the north of the planet. In size, it is roughly between Australia and the contiguous United States
The contiguous United States (officially the conterminous United States) consists of the 48 adjoining U.S. states and the Federal District of the United States of America. The term excludes the only two non-contiguous states, Alaska and Hawaii ...
, making it the second-largest of the terrae.
On its eastern edge lies the great mountain chain
A mountain chain is a row of high mountain summits, a linear sequence of interconnected or related mountains,Whittow, John (1984). ''Dictionary of Physical Geography''. London: Penguin, p 87. . or a contiguous ridge of mountains within a larger ...
Maxwell Montes, which is about high, compared to Mount Everest at . On one side of the mountain chain is the impact crater Cleopatra Patera, in diameter filled with lava. Ishtar Terra contains the four main mountain ranges of Venus: Maxwell Montes on the eastern edge, Freyja Montes in the north, Akna Montes on the western edge, and Danu Montes in the southern region. These surround the lower plain of Ishtar Terra, which is named Lakshmi Planum (after the Hindu goddess Lakshmi
Lakshmi (; , sometimes spelled Laxmi, ), also known as Shri (, ), is one of the principal goddesses in Hinduism. She is the goddess of wealth, fortune, power, beauty, fertility and prosperity, and associated with ''Maya'' ("Illusion"). Al ...
). Ishtar Terra also contains volcanoes named after famous women: Sacajawea and Colette
Sidonie-Gabrielle Colette (; 28 January 1873 – 3 August 1954), known mononymously as Colette, was a French author and woman of letters. She was also a mime, actress, and journalist. Colette is best known in the English-speaking world for her ...
. Ishtar Terra is also the site of many tesserae
A tessera (plural: tesserae, diminutive ''tessella'') is an individual tile, usually formed in the shape of a square, used in creating a mosaic. It is also known as an abaciscus or abaculus.
Historical tesserae
The oldest known tesser ...
, made by tectonic deformation.
See also
* Geography of Venus * Note that Ishtar Terra is located near the south pole if Venus's rotation is defined as prograde by theright-hand rule
In mathematics and physics, the right-hand rule is a common mnemonic for understanding orientation of axes in three-dimensional space. It is also a convenient method for quickly finding the direction of a cross-product of 2 vectors.
Most of t ...
. The rotation of the planet is commonly characterized as retrograde in order to correlate its northern hemisphere with Earth's, in which case Ishtar Terra is near the north pole. This is the convention normally used for maps.
References
External links
* *IRISP Research Projects https://web.archive.org/web/20060511172654/http://irsps.sci.unich.it/research/projects/venus/ishtar/ *WPT http://pds.jpl.nasa.gov/planets/captions/venus/perspect.htm *Funky Science https://web.archive.org/web/20070318150841/http://www.funkyscience.net/imagebank/channel_ishtar.htmlNASA Map of Venus:
Surface features of Venus Inanna {{Venus-stub