wdm@ecn-pc.UUCP (Tex) (02/20/86)
>> Just out of curiousity, why are the Russians naming the craters on Venus? >> Not that I mind them doing it, I just wondered how the scientists of the >> world decide on who names what, and whether the rest of the world will >> recognize these names. >> Roger L. Long > >Roger. Whoever discovers things gets to name them. The Soviets are up to >something like 12 probes that have penetrated the atmosphere and actually >survived long enough to send back some decent photos. The US has never >probed Venus - we went the other way, and got to name things on Mars. > The US has indeed probed Venus - with spectacular results. Pioneer Venus 1 entered a highly eccentric orbit around Venus on December 4, 1978. Pioneer Venus 2 arrived on December 9, 1978. PV 2 was a multi-probe ship that contained five separate instrument packages. These were the a large probe, the North, Day, Night packages, and the Bus (which carried the other four). They started collecting data at an altitude of 70km. None was designed to survive impact, but the Day probe did, and continued to transmit data for 67 minutes after landing. I am not sure I understand how people come up with statements like "The US has never probed Venus - we went the other way, and got to name things on Mars," when that is so undeniably untrue. He didn't even say, "I am not sure, but I don't think the US has ever probed Venus..." Oh well. I think that "we" have named a number of features on the planet, including one of the few, Maxwell, which does not have a feminine name. Maxwell is a highland region in the northern hemisphere which contains one of the highest points on the planet (~11 km). Some of the other features are the Lakshimi Plateau (named ater a Hindi love goddess) which is west of Maxwell, Both Maxwell and Lakshimi are on the continent of Ishtar (a Babylonian love goddess). Although the sources I have do not mention who named these features, I THINK that they were named and discovered as a result of the two Pioneer probes, as well as observation from Earth using the Radio telescope at Arecibo. Note that the planet is smooth to within 2 km over 80% of its surface, so many of the features would probably be small - too small to be detected by the Pioneer probes. The Russian probes probably have greater resolution, so they are finding more things to name (If I were Russian, I would be tempted to name the more interesting features things like Gravysuckingcapitalistpig Ridge, Runningdogimperialist crater - things like that). One source mentions plans for a Venus Orbiting Imaging Radar to be launched in the late 80's and equipped with synthetic aperture radar, capable of resolving to 100m at the planet surface. I haven't heard anything about it recently, so I assume it is dead.