[X] My Assistant

[Jeffrey]

(Since we have Jovian for the Jupiter system, I'm assuming Hermean, Venerian, Arean and Chronian are the proper adjectives for the rest of the planets. I think, though, that "Poseidian" is a bit much and "Uranus" is basically the same word in Greek and Latin [Ouranos vs. Uranus.] Even "Venerian" isn't entirely correct, but it's either that or "Aphroditan. )


As you may have guessed, my interest in planetary maps has peaked again, and I think it's time to update all my Voyager-sourced maps. The question is, should I buy the latest USGS maps of Mimas, Iapetus, Enceladus, Dione, etc. or are new maps coming anytime soon?

[illexsquid]

Sorry to wander off-topic, but....

"Jovian" is from Jovis, the Latin genitive form of Jupiter, not the Greek name (which would of course be Ζεύς or Zeus). The same is true for Venerian (not venereal... tsk, tsk) and Martian. The forms Mercurian, Saturnian, Uranian and Neptunian work just fine, being formed in more or less the same way. Besides, Cronian means of the Klingon homeworld (ducks and runs for cover).

Anyway, as for maps: I still have my collection of hard-copy maps of the planets and moons from the eighties that I got as a kid and will keep forever. I regard them as historic, the first maps of these worlds, but yes, they are out-of-date. I did recently stumble across the USGS' current listing of I- maps (geologic investigation maps, the category under which they published the Voyager-based maps), but if you look under planetary maps you'll note that they stop at Jupiter. (They have nice new maps of all the Galileans except Io, available as PDFs.) However, the only Saturn maps I've found are the rough photomosaics available on the CICLOPS page; most don't even have nomenclature attached. I suppose you could put it there yourself and make a decent map, but I'm hoping at some point the USGS makes nice new maps of the Saturnian satellites (and also Mercury). Back in the Voyager era I was, as mentioned, just a kid, so I called the USGS in Flagstaff and asked them; I think I got put on the phone with the late Hal Mazursky. IIRC he told me it would be about 18 months after they got all the data from the Voyager encounters. So if the USGS even plans on publishing new Saturn maps, I'll bet they'll wait until "all" the data are in, and who knows when they'll judge that to be. Any opinions?

In the meantime, there are also PDFs available at the USGS' Gazetter of Planetary Nomenclature. And Google gave me this map of Mimas, though it's not listed. Hope this helps.