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Topographic Feature Names on Venus: Progress in 2000, Review of 1997 – 2000 Development, Current State, and Prospective

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Lunar and Planetary Science XXXII (2001) 2098.pdf TOPOGRAPHIC FEATURE NAMES ON VENUS: PROGRESS IN 2000, REVIEW OF 1997 – 2000 DEVELOPMENT, CURRENT STATE, AND PROSPECTIVE . G. A. Burba 1, J. Blue 2, D. B. Campbell 3, A. Dollfus 4, L. Gaddis 2, R. F. Jurgens 5, M. Ya. Marov 6, G.H. Pettengill 7, E.R. Stofan 5 1 Vernadsky Institute of Geochemistry and Analytical Chemistry, Moscow 117975, Russia <[email protected]>, 2 US Geological Survey, Flagstaff, AZ 86001, USA <[email protected]>, <[email protected]>, 3 Cornell University, Ithaca, NY, USA <[email protected]>, 4 Paris-Meudon Observatory, Paris, France <[email protected]>, 5 Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, CA,USA<[email protected]>,<[email protected]>, 6 Keldysh Institute of Applied Mathematics, Moscow, Russia <[email protected]>, 7 Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA, USA <[email protected]> Progress in 2000: Twelve new feature names have been assigned on Venus during 2000 by the REGIO: Task Group for Venus Nomenclature, a constituent Laufey Regio 16.0N/2.0S 305.0/325.0E 2100 part of the Working Group for Planetary System Norse giantess. Nomenclature of the International Astronomical Union (IAU). These names recently approved at the Review of 1997 – 2000 development: XXIV General Assembly of the IAU held this past New names. After the 1997 IAU General As- August in Manchester, Great Britain. The newly sembly, when about 660 new names were assigned, named features include 5 craters, 5 coronae, 1 dor- Venus obtained a mature system of topographic sum, and 1 regio. The list of the new names, assigned feature names [1,2]. During the following three years in 2000, follows. a smaller number of names have been added to Ve- nus [3–6]. Altogether, in the 1997–2000 period, 93 Name Latitude Longitude Size, km new feature names of 14 generic types have been Attribute data introduced. They include: 16 craters, 2 chasmata, 1 colles, 23 coronae, 6 dorsa, 13 fluctus, 2 fossae, 1 CRATERS: labyrinthus (the first example for Venus), 1 mons, 5 Blanche 9.3S 157.0E 12.3 paterae, 1 regio, 1 tessera, 12 tholi, and 9 valles. French first name. Dheepa 21.6S 176.3E 4.7 The names have been chosen on the international First name from India. basis; they were taken from sources, connected with Leona 3.1S 169.0E 3.0 every continent: 34 names come from Asia (includ- Greek first name. ing 11 from the Asiatic part of the former USSR), 32 Nanichi 44.8S 337.8E 19.0 from Europe (including 17 from the European part of Taino (Puerto Rico) first name. the former USSR), 8 from Oceania, 8 from South (Crater is located in Magellan coverage gap; and Central America, 6 from Africa, and 5 from visible on Earth-based Arecibo imagery). North America. Shirley 31.5N 55.4E 18.0 These 93 new names on Venus comprise 43% of the English first name. total number of 215 new names approved by the IAU during 1997–2000 for the features on 10 plane- CORONAE: tary bodies of the Solar system. Branwen Corona 27.0N 35.0E 320 British goddess of love. Deleted names. Eight names, adopted in an ear- Khabuchi Corona 11.0S 173.0E 285 lier period, have been dropped: 5 of them, after in- Avarian/Andalalan (Daghestan) childbirth deity. spection of higher-resolution images, were found to Nanen Corona 69.9N 198.5E 50 be of another feature type: Lilinau Corona, Hariasa Brazilian Earth and nature goddess. Linea, Vihansa Linea, Corday Patera, and Woodhull Nirmali Corona 6.3S 172.3E 60 Patera. Two names, Seshat Mons, and Carriera Nuristan (NE Afghanistan) childbirth goddess. Patera, were found to fit no specific feature. Sulis Corona 44.3N 14.2E 136 One more name, Hikuleo Tesserae, was found to be a British goddess of springs and healing waters. duplication (Hikuleo Fluctus had already been ap- proved for another feature on Venus), so, Hikuleo DORSUM: Tesserae was changed to Tushita Tesserae. Vetsorgo Dorsum 4.1/8.7S 160.0/165.3E 700 Mordovian/Erzya (Volga Finn) daughter of the Corrections. Minor corrections in spelling have supreme sky god Nishke. been applied to some of the previously approved Lunar and Planetary Science XXXII (2001) 2098.pdf FEATURE NAMES ON VENUS : G. A. Burba et al. names: Drena (crater) to Dena (crater), Vigier page ‘Images with names’ was visited 2211 times (on Lebrun (crater) to Vigee-Lebrun (crater), and Niola average about 3 times per each hour during 31 days). Mons to Nijole Mons. The planetary nomenclature web site continues to The descriptor term was changed for one name: consistently rank well within the top sites visited on Ludjatako Mons to Ludjatako Corona. the USGS/Flagstaff server. In two cases the descriptor terms were corrected from plural to singular form and vice versa to fit the real situation (Citlalpul Valles – to Vallis, Poranica Prospective: It is anticipated that during the Vallis – to Valles). 2000–2003 triennial period until the next General Assembly of the IAU, the naming on Venus will take New descriptor term. A new descriptor term, place in accordance with requests from the geologic proposed by A.T.Basilevsky of the Vernadsky Insti- mappers, who are involved in NASA's program of tute, Moscow, was approved – Astrum (pl. Astra) – quadrangle mapping at 1:5,000,000-scale, as well as for the naming of radial-patterned, ‘star-like’ fea- in the Vernadsky Institute and Brown University’s tures, usually radial systems of fractures/grooves. joint VENGLOBGEK project on the global map of The suggested category for the proper names for the Venus at 1:10,000,000-scale. new feature type is “miscellaneous goddesses”. So far, no feature has been named with the new term, It could be estimated that NASA's program of the 62- because the term has just been approved. There are sheet map has come so far through the naming proc- about 60 features of this type on Venus. Their di- ess for only approximately 10% of the planet's ameters range from 100 to 300 km. Some of them surface, and the Vernadsky/Brown map for have previously been named with the term corona or approximately 30%. mons, but such designations have caused problems for geologists who are mapping these areas. The impending tasks of Venus nomenclature devel- opment are aimed at suppling these maps with a suf- ficiently dense net of named features. Some 100 to Current state: The current list of the feature 150 new names are anticipated to appear on Venus names on Venus as of January 2001 includes 1821 during the forthcoming triennial period. names of 21 feature types. The gaps in Magellan image coverage, which take Names by feature types. Most of the names be- place in the Southern hemisphere of Venus, provide long to craters – 872 and coronae – 267, which to- more possibilities for new naming. It could take gether comprise 62% of the all named features on place on the base of the possible new results of the Venus. After craters and coronae, the most prevalent Earth-based radar observations, in particular from the feature types are (in decreasing number): dorsa – Arecibo observatory, where a resolution close to 100, montes – 97, valles – 72, paterae – 64, those of Magellan imagery is anticipated [7]. tesserae – 62, chasmata – 55, fluctus – 48, tholi – 46, and planitiae – 41. Altogether, these 11 types of References: features (including craters and coronae) contain 1724 [1] Burba G. A. and Blue J. (1997) Vernadsky- named features, this comprise approximately 95% of Brown microsymp. 26, 13. [2] Aksnes K. et al. the names. The other 10 types of features contain (1999) Trans. Internat. Astron.Union, XXIIIB, 231– only 105 names. 251. [3] Burba G. A. et al. (1998) 3rd Internat. Conf. Explor. Utiliz. Moon/Vernadsky-Brown Venus nomenclature on the web. A comprehen- microsymp. 28, 105. [4] Burba G. A. et al. (1999) sive list of the all named features on Venus can be LPS XXX, 1366 (CD-ROM). [5] Burba G. A. et al. found at the planetary nomenclature web site (1999) Vernadsky-Brown microsymp. 30, 11-12. <http://wwwflag.wr.usgs.gov/USGSFlag/Space/nome [6] Burba G. A. et al. (2000) LPS XXXI, 1076 (CD- n/nomen.html>. There is also a page within this web ROM). [7] Burba G. A. et al. (1999) LPS XXX, site titled ‘Images with names’, which contains im- 1756 (CD-ROM). agery of the four Jovian Galilean satellites and of Venus with every name associated with its feature. The Venus names are presented on 62 quadrangles of 1:5,000,000-scale black-and-white radar images (Magellan imagery), each 300 to 600 KB, as well as on 8 sheets of 1:10,000,000-scale color altimetry images (Magellan data), each 700 KB to 1.3 MB. The web site a is well-visited one. In May 2000, the title page alone was visited 2876 times (on average about 4 times each hour during 31 days), and the.
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