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Patera (planetary Nomenclature)
Patera (plural: paterae ) is an irregular crater, or a complex crater with scalloped edges on a celestial body. Paterae can have any origin (volcanic, impact or other), although the majority of them were created by volcanism. The term comes from Latin, where it refers to a shallow bowl used in antique cultures. This term is used in planetary nomenclature: it is a part of the international names of such features. In such names, it is capitalized and stands after the proper given name (e.g., Pillan Patera). Besides that, it can be used as a description term and applied even to unnamed features. Nature of paterae The term "patera", like other terms of planetary nomenclature, describes only the external view of the feature, but not its origin or geological structure. Majority of paterae of Venus, Mars and Io are volcanic craters or calderas, but some others (like Orcus Patera on Mars), probably, are impact craters. At least some of paterae on Triton, such as Leviathan Patera, a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Tupan Patera
Tupan Patera is an active volcano on Jupiter's moon Io. It is located on Io's anti-Jupiter hemisphere at . Tupan consists of a volcanic crater, known as a ''patera,'' 79 kilometers across and 900 meters deep. The volcano was first seen in low-resolution observations by the two '' Voyager'' spacecraft in 1979, but volcanic activity was not seen at this volcano until June 1996 during the ''Galileo'' spacecraft's first orbit. Following this first detection of near-infrared thermal emission and subsequent detections by Galileo during the next few orbits, this volcano was formally named Tupan Patera, after the thunder god of the Tupí- Guaraní indigenous peoples in Brazil, by the International Astronomical Union in 1997. Additional observations by Galileo's Near-Infrared Mapping Spectrometer (NIMS) between 1996 and 2001 revealed Tupan to be a persistently active volcano, visible during most NIMS observations of Io's anti-Jupiter hemisphere. Galileo acquired high-resolution col ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Mons (planetary Nomenclature)
Mons (plural: montes , from the Latin word for "mountain") is a mountain on a celestial body. The term is used in planetary nomenclature: it is a part of the international names of such features. It is capitalized and usually stands after the proper given name, but stands before it in the case of lunar mountains (for example, there is a Martian mountain Arsia Mons and a lunar mountain Mons Argaeus). The term '' tholus'' ("dome") is used for names of smaller (especially domical) uplands, and the term '' colles'' ("hills") in names of groups of still smaller knobs. Peculiar round mountains found on Venus get names with the term '' farrum''. Nature of montes The term ''mons'', like other terms of planetary nomenclature, describes only the external view of the feature, but not its origin or geological structure. It is used for mountains of any origin, and objects in this class are very diverse. Usually they are results of tectonic, impact or volcanic processes. Examples of such ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Fertile Crescent
The Fertile Crescent () is a crescent-shaped region in the Middle East, spanning modern-day Iraq, Israel, Jordan, Lebanon, Palestine, and Syria, together with northern Kuwait, south-eastern Turkey, and western Iran. Some authors also include Cyprus and northern Egypt. The Fertile Crescent is believed to be the first region where agriculture, settled farming emerged as people started the process of clearance and modification of natural vegetation to grow newly domesticated plants as crops. Early human civilizations such as Sumer in Prehistory of Mesopotamia, Mesopotamia flourished as a result. Technological advances in the region include the Origins of agriculture in West Asia, development of agriculture and the use of Irrigation#History, irrigation, of History of writing#Bronze Age writing, writing, the Wheel#History, wheel, and history of glass, glass, most emerging first in Mesopotamia. Terminology The term "Fertile Crescent" was popularized by archaeologist James Henry Br ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Wadi
Wadi ( ; ) is a river valley or a wet (ephemerality, ephemeral) Stream bed, riverbed that contains water only when heavy rain occurs. Wadis are located on gently sloping, nearly flat parts of deserts; commonly they begin on the distal portions of alluvial fans and extend to inland sabkhas or dry lakes. Permanent channels do not exist, due to lack of continual water flow. Water percolates down into the stream bed, causing an abrupt loss of energy and resulting in vast deposition. Wadis may develop dams of sediment that change the stream patterns in the next flash flood. Wadis tend to be associated with centers of human population because sub-surface water is sometimes available in them. Nomadic and pastoral desert peoples will rely on seasonal vegetation found in wadis, even in regions as dry as the Sahara, as they travel in complex transhumance routes. The centrality of wadis to water – and human life – in desert environments gave birth to the distinct sub-field of wadi h ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Eugène Antoniadi
Eugène Michel Antoniadi (Greek: Ευγένιος Αντωνιάδης; 1 March 1870 – 10 February 1944) was a Greek- French astronomer. He is known for creating the Antoniadi scale as well as for his observations of the planets, and was a major opponent of the notion of Martian canals. He created some very detailed maps of Mars and many features on the planet are still known by the names he suggested. He also created the first map of Mercury, though it turned out to be incorrect. Biography Antoniadi was born in Istanbul (Constantinople) but spent most of his adult life in France after being invited there by Camille Flammarion. He became a Fellow of the Royal Astronomical Society on 10 February 1899, and in 1890 he became one of the founding members of the British Astronomical Association (BAA). In 1892, he joined the BAA's Mars Section and became that section's Director in 1896. He became a member of the Société astronomique de France (SAF) in 1891. Flammarion hir ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Giovanni Schiaparelli
Giovanni Virginio Schiaparelli ( , , ; 14 March 1835 – 4 July 1910) was an Italian astronomer and science historian. Biography He studied at the University of Turin, graduating in 1854, and later did research at Berlin Observatory, under Encke. In 1859–1860 he worked in Pulkovo Observatory near St Petersburg, and then worked for over forty years at Brera Observatory in Milan. He was also a senator of the Kingdom of Italy, a member of the Accademia dei Lincei, the Accademia delle Scienze di Torino and the Regio Istituto Lombardo, and is particularly known for his studies of Mars. Mars Among Schiaparelli's contributions are his telescopic observations of Mars. In his initial observations, he named the " seas" and "continents" of Mars. During the planet's "great opposition" of 1877, he observed a dense network of linear structures on the surface of Mars, which he called in Italian, meaning "channels", but the term was mistranslated into English as "canals".Washam ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Albedo Feature
In planetary geology, an albedo feature is a large area on the surface of a planet (or other Solar System body) which shows a contrast in brightness or darkness (albedo) with adjacent areas. Historically, albedo features were the first (and usually only) features to be seen and named on Mars and Mercury. Early classical maps (such as those of Schiaparelli and Antoniadi) showed only albedo features, and it was not until the arrival of space probes that other surface features such as craters could be seen. On bodies other than Mars and Mercury, an albedo feature is sometimes called a regio. On bodies with a very thick atmosphere like Venus or Titan, permanent albedo features cannot be seen using ordinary optical telescopes because the surface is not visible, and only clouds and other transient atmospheric phenomena are seen. The ''Cassini–Huygens'' probe observed multiple albedo features on Titan after its arrival in Saturn's orbit in 2004. The first albedo feature ever ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Titan (moon)
Titan is the largest moon of Saturn and the List of Solar System objects by size, second-largest in the Solar System. It is the only Natural satellite, moon known to have an atmosphere denser than the Atmosphere of Earth, Earth's and is the only known object in space—other than Earth—on which there is clear evidence that stable bodies of liquid exist. Titan is one of seven List of gravitationally rounded objects of the Solar System, gravitationally rounded moons of Saturn and the second-most distant among them. Frequently described as a Planetary-mass moon, planet-like moon, Titan is 50% larger in diameter than Earth's Moon and 80% more Mass, massive. It is the second-largest moon in the Solar System after Jupiter's Ganymede (moon), Ganymede and is larger than Mercury (planet), Mercury; yet Titan is only 40% as massive as Mercury, because Mercury is mainly iron and rock while much of Titan is ice, which is less dense. Discovered in 1655 by the Dutch astronomer Christiaan ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Triton (moon)
Triton is the largest natural satellite of the planet Neptune. It is the only moon of Neptune massive enough to be list of gravitationally rounded objects of the Solar System, rounded under its own gravity and hosts a atmosphere of Triton, thin, hazy atmosphere. Triton orbits Neptune in a retrograde orbit—revolving in the opposite direction to the parent planet's rotation—the only large moon in the Solar System to do so. Triton is thought to have once been a dwarf planet from the Kuiper belt, gravitational capture, captured into Neptune's orbit by the latter's gravity. At in diameter, Triton is the list of natural satellites#List, seventh-largest moon in the Solar System, the second-largest planetary moon in relation to its primary (after Earth's Moon), and larger than all of the known dwarf planets. The mean density is , reflecting a composition of approximately 30–45% ice, water ice by mass, with the rest being mostly rock and metal. Triton is differentiated, with a c ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ganymede (moon)
Ganymede is a natural satellite of Jupiter and the List of Solar System objects by size, largest and most massive in the Solar System. Like Saturn's largest moon Titan (moon), Titan, it is larger than the planet Mercury (planet), Mercury, but has somewhat less surface gravity than Mercury, Io (moon), Io, or the Moon due to its lower density compared to the three. Ganymede orbits Jupiter in roughly seven days and is in a 1:2:4 orbital resonance with the moons Europa (moon), Europa and Io (moon), Io, respectively. Ganymede is composed of silicate, silicate rock and water substance, water in approximately equal proportions. It is a fully Planetary differentiation, differentiated body with an iron-rich, Planetary core, liquid metallic core, giving it the lowest moment of inertia factor of any solid body in the Solar System. Its Planetary oceanography, internal ocean potentially contains more water than all of Earth's oceans combined. Ganymede's magnetic field is probably created ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Mariner 9
Mariner 9 (Mariner Mars '71 / Mariner-I) was a robotic spacecraft that contributed greatly to the exploration of Mars and was part of the NASA Mariner program. Mariner 9 was launched toward Mars on May 30, 1971, from Spaceport Florida Launch Complex 36, LC-36B at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Florida, and reached the planet on November 14 of the same year, becoming the first spacecraft to orbit another planet – only narrowly beating the Soviet Union, Soviet probes ''Mars 2'' (launched May 19) and ''Mars 3'' (launched May 28), which both arrived at Mars only weeks later. After the occurrence of Climate of Mars#Dust storms, dust storms on the planet for several months following its arrival, the orbiter managed to send back clear pictures of the surface. Mariner 9 successfully returned 7,329 images, covering 85% of Mars' surface, over the course of its mission, which concluded in October 1972. Objectives Mariner 9 was designed to continue the atmospheric studies begun by ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
International Astronomical Union
The International Astronomical Union (IAU; , UAI) is an international non-governmental organization (INGO) with the objective of advancing astronomy in all aspects, including promoting astronomical research, outreach, education, and development through global cooperation. It was founded on 28 July 1919 in Brussels, Belgium and is based in Paris, France. The IAU is composed of individual members, who include both professional astronomers and junior scientists, and national members, such as professional associations, national societies, or academic institutions. Individual members are organised into divisions, committees, and working groups centered on particular subdisciplines, subjects, or initiatives. the Union had 85 national members and 12,734 individual members, spanning 90 countries and territories. Among the key activities of the IAU is serving as a forum for scientific conferences. It sponsors nine annual symposia and holds a triannual General Assembly that sets policy ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
