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About Mercury   Mercury, the closest planet to the sun.  Its orbit around the Sun takes 87.97 Earth days, the shortest of all the planets in the Solar System. Mercury does not have any moons. The Roman god Mercury [1] was the god of translators and interpreters.  Let us look at the names of the features on Mercury.         Caloris Planitia and Caloris Montes The name has it origin from hot plain.   The diameter for the feature is 685.175km.   Nearby you have Caloris Montes a mountain range of hot mountains.       Pantheon Fossae and Apollodorus Crater   This is long depression of   11.494 km. The Patheon in Roman, was built initially by Marcus Agrippa in 27 BC and rebuilt by Hadrian between 118 AD and 128 AD. Along the fossae you will comes across the Apollodorus crater. Apollodorus of Damascus; Greek architect (2nd century AD).       Atget and  Cunningham Crate...

More about Venus

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  More about Venus Let us explore the surface a bit more today and explore the stories behind the names. Yesterday we spoke about Heng O legend and also Badb lines.   Features Fossa [1]  is a long nature depression on the extra-terrestrial object Dorsa - A wrinkled ridge Planitia – A low plain   Namjyalma Fossae Namjyalma [2] is a Tibetan victorious mother.  She is typically as while in colour with three faces and eight arms. The symbolism of the while colour is the elimination of disasters. Unuk Dorsa The name has its origin in the Eskimo (Chukotka) night maiden. Dewi Ratih Chasma Dewi Ratih [3] is a Hindu lunar goddess worshipped in Java and Bali. She is well known for her beauty and grace, thus she was also known as the Goddess of Beauty.  Her myth is linked to lunar cycles. In the myth, after rejected by Dewi, the giant Kala Rau planed to attack Vishnoloka( dwelling of Vishnu). After Dewi informed Vishnu that the leading rakshasa was Kala, he behe...

Lets talk to Venus

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 When we look at Venus in the evening sky we think have image of the "The Birth of Venus" painting by Botticelli. Venus the second planet from the Sun and named after the Roman God of Love. Venus orbits the Sun every 224.7 Earth days. It has a rotation period of 243 Earth days,. The naming of the features on Venus after the names of female deities. Over the next few posts we will explore the stories behind the names. We see the picture below the names of some of features of surface of Venus Feature Types  In planetary nomenclature, a chasma /ˈkæzmə is a deep, elongated, steep-sided depression. There are 122 feature of this type identified in the solar system.  A corona is an oval shaped feature. A linea feature is a dark or bright elongate marking, may be curved or straight Heng O Chasma and Corona   In Chinese Mythology Heng-O was the mother of the twelve moons (which represented each month of the year). At the beginning of the each month,   Heng-O wa...

Names in the stars

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  Welcome Welcome to this blog. In this blog we will explore the naming of astronomical objects in the solar system and give a summary of the story behind the names. On the journey will learn which craters on Charon are names after Star Wars characters.  The features of  Venus are named are women. We will explore who these women are. If  you have a preference for planet drop us a line More Reading https://www.iau.org/public/themes/naming/ https://www.newscientist.com/article/mg12917581-700-famous-women-find-a-home-in-venus/