 Mariner 10 image of Sobkou Planitia showing the crater pair Degas and Brontë | |
| Planet | Mercury |
|---|---|
| Coordinates | 39°N128°W / 39°N 128°W |
| Quadrangle | Shakespeare |
| Eponym | Egyptian messenger god Sobek |
Sobkou Planitia is a large basin on the planet Mercury. It is named after the ancient Egyptian messenger deity Sobkou (whose name is more usually transliterated Sobek). [1] He was associated by the Egyptians with the planet Mercury.
Sobkou Planitia was discovered after Sobkou, the basin, was recognized as a Pre-Tolstojan basin on images from Mariner 10 . [2]
The most prominent features within the plain itself are a pair of craters, similar in size to one another, known as Brontë and Degas. Brontë is the older of the two craters, and the impact that formed Degas has overlapped the edges of that older crater and spread a spray of rays across the southern regions of Sobkou Planitia and beyond. [3]
According to Peter Grego's book Venus and Mercury and how to observe them Sobkou Planitia is free of scarps, ridges, fractures and valleys. Its southeastern edge is bordered by the scarp Heemskerck Rupes which is about 300 km long which along part of the line of a very broad, bright swathe which is 1,000 km long and terminating just to the east of Chŏng Chʼŏl crater. [4]
A gravitational high, also known as a mascon, is roughly centered on Sobkou Planitia. [5] Most large impact basins on the moon, such as Mare Imbrium and Mare Crisium, are the site of mascons.
An impact crater is a circular depression in the surface of a solid astronomical object formed by the hypervelocity impact of a smaller object. In contrast to volcanic craters, which result from explosion or internal collapse, impact craters typically have raised rims and floors that are lower in elevation than the surrounding terrain. Lunar impact craters range from microscopic craters on lunar rocks returned by the Apollo program and small, simple, bowl-shaped depressions in the lunar regolith to large, complex, multi-ringed impact basins. Meteor Crater is a well-known example of a small impact crater on Earth.
Mercury is the first planet from the Sun and the smallest in the Solar System. In English, it is named after the Roman god Mercurius (Mercury), god of commerce and communication, and the messenger of the gods. Mercury is classified as a terrestrial planet, with roughly the same surface gravity as Mars. The surface of Mercury is heavily cratered, as a result of countless impact events that have accumulated over billions of years. Its largest crater, Caloris Planitia, has a diameter of 1,550 km (960 mi) and one-third the diameter of the planet. Similarly to the Earth's Moon, Mercury's surface displays an expansive rupes system generated from thrust faults and bright ray systems formed by impact event remnants.
Mare Orientale is a lunar mare. It is located on the western border of the near side and far side of the Moon, and is difficult to see from an Earthbound perspective. Images from spacecraft have revealed it to be one of the most striking large scale lunar features, resembling a target ring bullseye.
Mare Nectaris is a small lunar mare or sea located south of Mare Tranquillitatis southwest of Mare Fecunditatis, on the near side of the Moon. Montes Pyrenaeus borders the mare to the east and Sinus Asperitatis fuses to its northwestern edge. It is 84,000 square kilometers in size.
Caloris Planitia is a plain within a large impact basin on Mercury, informally named Caloris, about 1,550 km (960 mi) in diameter. It is one of the largest impact basins in the Solar System. "Calor" is Latin for "heat" and the basin is so-named because the Sun is almost directly overhead every second time Mercury passes perihelion. The crater, discovered in 1974, is surrounded by the Caloris Montes, a ring of mountains approximately 2 km (1.2 mi) tall.
Degas is a rayed crater on Mercury at latitude 37.5 N, longitude 127 W. Its diameter is 54 kilometres (34 mi). It was named after the French impressionist painter Edgar Degas in 1979. The rays consist of light colored material blasted out during the crater's formation. Craters older than Degas are covered by the ray material, while younger craters are seen superimposed on the rays. Degas forms a crater pair with Brontë to the north. Both lie near the center of Sobkou Planitia.
The geology of Mercury is the scientific study of the surface, crust, and interior of the planet Mercury. It emphasizes the composition, structure, history, and physical processes that shape the planet. It is analogous to the field of terrestrial geology. In planetary science, the term geology is used in its broadest sense to mean the study of the solid parts of planets and moons. The term incorporates aspects of geophysics, geochemistry, mineralogy, geodesy, and cartography.
Lacus Veris is a small lunar mare on the Moon. In selenographic coordinates, the mare centered at 16.5° S, 86.1° W and is approximately 396 km long. The mare extends along an irregular 90° arc from east to north that is centered on the Mare Orientale, covering an area of about 12,000 km2. Author Eric Burgess proposed this mare as the location of a future crewed lunar base, citing a 1989 study performed at the NASA Johnson Space Center.
The geology of solar terrestrial planets mainly deals with the geological aspects of the four terrestrial planets of the Solar System – Mercury, Venus, Earth, and Mars – and one terrestrial dwarf planet: Ceres. Earth is the only terrestrial planet known to have an active hydrosphere.
Heng-o Corona is a corona in Guinevere Planitia on the planet Venus at Latitude 2° North, Longitude 355° East. It has a diameter of 1,060 kilometres (660 mi), and is the second largest corona on Venus.
Tir Planitia is a large plain on the planet Mercury. The name Tir (تیر) is the Persian word for "Mercury",, and the name was approved in 1976. It was first observed in detail by Mariner 10. It lies between the large crater Mozart and the ancient Tolstoj basin.
The Borealis quadrangle is a quadrangle on Mercury surrounding the north pole down to 65° latitude. It was mapped in its entirety by the MESSENGER spacecraft, which orbited the planet from 2008 to 2015, excluding areas of permanent shadow near the north pole. Only approximately 25% of the quadrangle was imaged by the Mariner 10 spacecraft during its flybys in 1974 and 1975. The quadrangle is now called H-1.
The Tolstoj quadrangle in the equatorial region of Mercury runs from 144 to 216° longitude and -25 to 25° latitude. It was provisionally called "Tir", but renamed after Leo Tolstoy by the International Astronomical Union in 1976. Also called Phaethontias.
The Shakespeare quadrangle is a region of Mercury running from 90 to 180° longitude and 20 to 70° latitude. It is also called Caduceata.
The Caloris group is a set of geologic units on Mercury. McCauley and others have proposed the name “Caloris Group” to include the mappable units created by the impact that formed the Caloris Basin and have formally named four formations within the group, which were first recognized and named informally by Trask and Guest.
The Kuiper quadrangle, located in a heavily cratered region of Mercury, includes the young, 55-km-diameter crater Kuiper, which has the highest albedo recorded on the planet, and the small crater Hun Kal, which is the principal reference point for Mercurian longitude. Impact craters and basins, their numerous secondary craters, and heavily to lightly cratered plains are the characteristic landforms of the region. At least six multiringed basins ranging from 150 km to 440 km in diameter are present. Inasmuch as multiringed basins occur widely on that part of Mercury photographed by Mariner 10, as well as on the Moon and Mars, they offer a potentially valuable basis for comparison between these planetary bodies.
The Bach quadrangle encompasses the south polar part of Mercury poleward of latitude 65° S. It is named after the prominent crater Bach within the quadrangle, which is in turn named after Baroque composer Johann Sebastian Bach. The quadrangle is now called H-15.
The Discovery quadrangle lies within the heavily cratered part of Mercury in a region roughly antipodal to the 1550-km-wide Caloris Basin. Like the rest of the heavily cratered part of the planet, the quadrangle contains a spectrum of craters and basins ranging in size from those at the limit of resolution of the best photographs to those as much as 350 km across, and ranging in degree of freshness from pristine to severely degraded. Interspersed with the craters and basins both in space and time are plains deposits that are probably of several different origins. Because of its small size and very early segregation into core and crust, Mercury has seemingly been a dead planet for a long time—possibly longer than the Moon. Its geologic history, therefore, records with considerable clarity some of the earliest and most violent events that took place in the inner Solar System.
Rembrandt is a large impact crater on Mercury. With a diameter of 716 km it is the second-largest impact basin on the planet, after Caloris, and is one of the larger craters in the Solar System. It was discovered by MESSENGER during its second flyby of Mercury on October 6, 2008. The crater is 3.9 billion years old, and was created during the period of Late Heavy Bombardment. The density and size distribution of impact craters along Rembrandt's rim indicate that it is one of the youngest impact basins on Mercury.
Brontë is a crater on Mercury. It has a diameter of 68 kilometres. Its name was adopted by the International Astronomical Union in 1976. Bronte is named for English writers Charlotte Brontë, who lived from 1816 to 1855, Emily Brontë, who lived from 1818 to 1848, and Anne Brontë, who lived from 1820 to 1849, and English writer and artist Branwell Brontë, who lived from 1817 to 1848.
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