Amaterasu Patera
Encyclopedia
Amaterasu Patera is a patera, or a complex crater with scalloped edges, on Jupiter
Jupiter
Jupiter is the fifth planet from the Sun and the largest planet within the Solar System. It is a gas giant with mass one-thousandth that of the Sun but is two and a half times the mass of all the other planets in our Solar System combined. Jupiter is classified as a gas giant along with Saturn,...

's moon Io
Io (moon)
Io ) is the innermost of the four Galilean moons of the planet Jupiter and, with a diameter of , the fourth-largest moon in the Solar System. It was named after the mythological character of Io, a priestess of Hera who became one of the lovers of Zeus....

. Its temperature was estimated on March 5, 1979 to be around 218 kelvin
Kelvin
The kelvin is a unit of measurement for temperature. It is one of the seven base units in the International System of Units and is assigned the unit symbol K. The Kelvin scale is an absolute, thermodynamic temperature scale using as its null point absolute zero, the temperature at which all...

s. It is one of the darkest features on Io, and the measurement of its thermal spectrum helped to support an anticorrelation established between albedo
Albedo
Albedo , or reflection coefficient, is the diffuse reflectivity or reflecting power of a surface. It is defined as the ratio of reflected radiation from the surface to incident radiation upon it...

 and temperature for Ionian hotspots
Hotspot (geology)
The places known as hotspots or hot spots in geology are volcanic regions thought to be fed by underlying mantle that is anomalously hot compared with the mantle elsewhere. They may be on, near to, or far from tectonic plate boundaries. There are two hypotheses to explain them...

. The feature has darkened further since the first orbit around Jupiter by the Galileo spacecraft. It is 100 kilometers in diameter and located at 38.1°N 306.5°W. It was named after the Japan
Japan
Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...

ese sun goddess Amaterasu
Amaterasu
, or is apart of the Japanese myth cycle and also a major deity of the Shinto religion. She is the goddess of the sun, but also of the universe. the name Amaterasu derived from Amateru meaning "shining in heaven." The meaning of her whole name, Amaterasu-ōmikami, is "the great August kami who...

. To the north are Kinich Ahau Patera
Kinich Ahau Patera
Kinich Ahau Patera is a patera, or a complex crater with scalloped edges, on Jupiter's moon Io. It is about 45 kilometers in diameter and is located at . It is named after the Mayan sun god Kinich Ahau. Dazhbog Patera is located northeast, Amaterasu Patera is located south-southeast, and Manua...

 and Dazhbog Patera
Dazhbog Patera
Dazhbog Patera is a volcanic feature on Jupiter's moon Io. Named after Dažbog, it has a diameter of 118.36 km. and is located . This volcano is difficult to differentiate from the other volcanoes and geological features in some images of Io. In images from the Voyager spacecraft, this caldera...

, and to the west are Manua Patera
Manua Patera
Manua Patera is a patera, or a complex crater with scalloped edges, on Jupiter's moon Io. It is 110.5 kilometers in diameter and is located at . It is named after the Hawaiian sun god Manua. Its name was adopted by the International Astronomical Union in 1979. To the southwest is Fuchi Patera, and...

 and Fuchi Patera
Fuchi Patera
Fuchi Patera is a patera, or a complex crater with scalloped edges, on Jupiter's moon Io. It is approximately 64 kilometers in diameter and is located at . It is named after the Ainu fire goddess, Fuchi. Its name was adopted by the International Astronomical Union in 1979. Manua Patera is located...

.
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