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Viracocha Patera

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A screenshot of an area including Viracocha Patera, from NASA World Wind.

Viracocha Patera is a patera, or a complex crater with scalloped edges, on Jupiter's moon Io. It is about 61 kilometers in diameter and is located at 61°45′S 280°04′W / 61.75°S 280.07°W / -61.75; -280.07 (Viracocha Patera). It is named after the Quechua creator god Viracocha. The name was adopted by the International Astronomical Union in 1979.[1] Viracocha Patera is a Voyager spacecraft-detected hot spot.[2] To Viracocha Patera's east-northeast is Mithra Patera, and to the northeast is the mountain Silpium Mons.[3]

References

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  1. ^ "Viracocha Patera". Gazetteer of Planetary Nomenclature. Retrieved 2019-10-07.
  2. ^ "Hot Spots on Io: Initial Results from Galileo's Near Infrared Mapping Spectrometer" (PDF). trs-new.jpl.nasa.gov. Archived from the original (PDF) on July 19, 2011. Retrieved October 20, 2007.
  3. ^ NASA World Wind 1.4. NASA Ames Research Center, 2007.