The Naming of Things: Tartarus Montes

• Mons/Montes: mountains
• Tartarus: In Greek myth, the lowest part of Hades. Zeus imprisoned the Titans in Tartarus.

The small hills and ridges in this VIS image are the montes of the Tartarus region of Mars.

Nomenclature Fact of the Day: Planetary nomenclature is international in scope; names are chosen from countries and cultures from all over the world, and they are evaluated by international groups of experts before they are approved by the IAU.

Image information: VIS instrument. Latitude 15.4, Longitude 172.7 East (187.3 West). 19 meter/pixel resolution.

Note: this THEMIS visual image has not been radiometrically nor geometrically calibrated for this preliminary release. An empirical correction has been performed to remove instrumental effects. A linear shift has been applied in the cross-track and down-track direction to approximate spacecraft and planetary motion. Fully calibrated and geometrically projected images will be released through the Planetary Data System in accordance with Project policies at a later time.

NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory manages the 2001 Mars Odyssey mission for NASA's Office of Space Science, Washington, D.C. The Thermal Emission Imaging System (THEMIS) was developed by Arizona State University, Tempe, in collaboration with Raytheon Santa Barbara Remote Sensing. The THEMIS investigation is led by Dr. Philip Christensen at Arizona State University. Lockheed Martin Astronautics, Denver, is the prime contractor for the Odyssey project, and developed and built the orbiter. Mission operations are conducted jointly from Lockheed Martin and from JPL, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena.