Amaterasu Patera

Amaterasu Patera is a patera, a complex crater with scalloped edges, on Jupiter's moon Io. It is one of the darkest features on Io, and the measurement of its thermal spectrum (its temperature was estimated in 1979 to be 281 K) helped to support an anticorrelation between albedo and temperature for Ionian hotspots.[1] The feature has darkened further since the first orbit around Jupiter by the Galileo spacecraft.[2] It is 100 kilometers in diameter and located at 38.1°N 306.5°W / 38.1; -306.5.[3] It was named after the Japanese sun goddess Amaterasu.[3] To the north are Kinich Ahau Patera and Dazhbog Patera, and to the west are Manua Patera and Fuchi Patera.[4]

Amaterasu Patera, in a screenshot taken in NASA World Wind. Click to enlarge.

References
  1. J. C. Pearl (1985). "Io: Amaterasu Patera is Hot". Bulletin of the American Astronomical Society. 17: 691. Bibcode:1985BAAS...17..691P.
  2. "Galileo". xtec.es. Archived from the original on December 19, 2005. Retrieved October 19, 2007.
  3. "Amaterasu Patera". Gazetteer of Planetary Nomenclature. USGS Astrogeology Research Program.
  4. NASA World Wind 1.4. NASA Ames Research Center, 2007.
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