Chthonius Linea
What Chthonius Linea is
Chthonius Linea is a linea — a long, dark or bright marking — on Europa, 2,180 km across, centred at 1.4° S, 55.8° E. It is the 8th largest named feature on Europa and the 5th largest of its class there.
Where the name comes from
Survivor of the men Cadmus sowed with dragon's teeth, a founder of Thebes. The International Astronomical Union approved the name in 1997, under the theme it applies to every linea on Europa. Of the 49 features of this class catalogued on Europa, the naming categories run Greek (38), Celtic (6), England (3), France (1).
What it would take to settle Chthonius Linea
Europa scores 60.9 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 1.4° S, 55.8° E.
What this spot has going for it is sunlight — 100% of the sunlight the sunniest latitude on Europa gets. What works against it is radiation geometry — on the trailing hemisphere, which takes the brunt of the bombardment.
Computed from Chthonius Linea'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 Europa (earth link, known ground). Gravity, pressure, delta-v and distance from the Sun are the same everywhere on Europa 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 linea features on Europa
All 49 lineae on Europa — mapped together, with the naming theme and the size distribution.