Cocytus Montes
What Cocytus Montes is
Cocytus Montes is a mons — a mountain — on Io, 542 km across, centred at 61.0° N, 28.3° E. It is the 12th largest named feature on Io and the 2nd largest of its class there.
Where the name comes from
Name for the frozen lake which is the ninth and final circle of Hell in Danteâs âThe Inferno.â The International Astronomical Union approved the name in 2025, under the theme it applies to every mons on Io. Of the 26 features of this class catalogued on Io, the naming categories run Greek (12), Italy (4), Hawaii (1), Iran (1).
What it would take to settle Cocytus Montes
Io scores 76.7 as a world. That number is the same for every square metre of it — but sunlight, water, radiation and the ground under your feet are not. This is the same question asked at 61.0° N, 28.3° E.
What this spot has going for it is temperature — about -158 °C mean at this latitude. What works against it is water — same as everywhere else on this world.
Computed from Cocytus Montes's catalogued latitude, longitude and feature class — 84% of the model's weight had a basis here, and 2 axes were dropped as not applicable to Io (earth link, known ground). Gravity, pressure, delta-v and distance from the Sun are the same everywhere on Io and are already counted in the world's own index, not again here.
What this cannot see: elevation. Slope, local shadowing and the polar “peaks of eternal light” — ridge tops near the poles of a barely tilted world that catch sun almost continuously while a crater floor kilometres away never does — need a terrain model this does not have. Where a real mission targets a pole, that is usually why.
What is next to it
The largest mons features on Io
All 26 montes on Io — mapped together, with the naming theme and the size distribution.