NASA MAGELLAN MISSION (1989-1994)
Skadi Mons (11, 500m or 11, 5 km - 37,730 ft or 7 miles)
Venus planet (Maxwell Montes)
Photographed on 7 march 1996
The mountain
Skadi Mons 10,700m or 10, 7 km - 35,105 ft or 6, 65 mi) is a mountain on planet Venus, in Maxwell Montes, at the center of Ishtar Terra. It is the highest point of the planet with an altitude of about 10,700 meters above the mean planetary radius. On this image it is located along the right hand part.
Maxwell Montes is a mountain massif on the planet Venus, located on Ishtar Terra, the more northern of the planet's two major highlands. The western slopes are very steep, whereas the eastern slopes descend gradually into Fortuna Tessera. Due to its elevation it is the coolest (about 380 °C or 716 °F) and least pressurised (about 45 bar or 44 atm) location on the surface of Venus.
By using radar to probe through the permanent and thick clouds in the Venusian atmosphere and make observations of the surface, scientists at the American Arecibo Radio Telescope in Puerto Rico discovered the extensive highland on Venus that came to be called Maxwell Montes in 1967.In 1978, the space probe Pioneer Venus 1 went into orbit around Venus for the purpose of making radar observations of the Venusian surface. These observations made possible the creation of the first topographic map of the surface of Venus, and confirmed that a point within Maxwell Montes is the highest point above the average level of the planet's surface.
Maxwell Montes, Alpha Regio, and Beta Regio are the three exceptions to the rule that the surface features of Venus are to be named for females.
Maxwell Montes is named for James Clerk Maxwell whose work in mathematical physics predicted the existence of radio waves, which made radar, and thus the surface observations of Venus, possible.
The name, originally given by Ray Jurgens in 1970 on the urging of Tommy Gold, was approved by the International Astronomical Union's Working Group for Planetary System Nomenclature (IAU/WGPSN) between 1976 and 1979.
Source:
- NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory / CalTech
The image capturer
This Magellan full resolution radar image is centered at 65 degrees north latitude, zero degrees east longitude, along the eastern edge of Lakshmi Planum and the western edge of Maxwell Montes and its highest peak, Skadi Mons. The plains of Lakshmi are made up of radar-dark, homogeneous, smooth lava flows. Maxwell is made up of parallel ridges 2 to 7 km (1.2 to 4.2 miles) apart and is interpreted to have formed by compressional tectonics. The image is 300 km (180 miles) wide.
The Magellan spacecraft, named after the 16th century Portuguese explorer whose expedition first circumnavigated the Earth, was launched May 4, 1989, and arrived at Venus on August 10, 1990. Magellan's solid rocket motor placed it into a near-polar elliptical orbit around the planet. During the first 8-month mapping cycle around Venus, Magellan collected radar images of 84% of the planet's surface, with resolution 10 times better than that of the earlier Soviet Venera 15 and 16 missions. Altimetry and radiometry data also measured the surface topography and electrical characteristics.
During the extended mission, two further mapping cycles from May 15, 1991 to September 14, 1992 brought mapping coverage to 98% of the planet, with a resolution of approximately 100m.
Precision radio tracking of the spacecraft will measure Venus' gravitational field to show the planet's internal mass distribution and the forces which have created the surface features. Magellan's data will permit the first global geological understanding of Venus, the planet most like Earth in our solar system.
Magellan Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) data is combined with radar altimetry to develop a three-dimensional map of the surface. The vertical scale in this perspective has been exaggerated 22.5 times. Rays cast in a computer intersect the surface to create a three-dimensional perspective view. Simulated color and a digital elevation map developed by the U.S. Geological Survey, are used to enhance small-scale structure. The simulated hues are based on color images recorded by the Soviet Venera 13 and 14 spacecraft. The image was produced at the JPL Multimission Image Processing Laboratory.
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