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Io · Patera · 148th largest named feature

Inti Patera

Inca sun god.

What Inti Patera is

Inti Patera is a patera — an irregular or scalloped-edged crater, usually volcanic — on Io, 76.3 km across, centred at 68.4° S, 12.5° E. It is the 148th largest named feature on Io and the 66th largest of its class there.

Where the name comes from

Inca sun god. The International Astronomical Union approved the name in 1979, under the theme it applies to every patera on Io. Of the 170 features of this class catalogued on Io, the naming categories run Japan (9), Celtic (8), India (6), China (6).

Feature class
an irregular or scalloped-edged crater, usually volcanic
Diameter
76.3 km
about the width of Yellowstone
Coordinates
68.4° S, 12.5° E
Planetocentric, on Io
Name approved
1979
By the IAU Working Group for Planetary System Nomenclature
Naming category
Inca
South and Central America

What it would take to settle Inti Patera

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 68.4° S, 12.5° E.

Settlement difficulty here
79.9/ 100
Harder than most of this world
Io overall
76.7
3.2 harder than the median site
Ranked
246th
of 260 named places on Io

What this spot has going for it is ground mixed ground — a rim, a floor and slopes between them. What works against it is water same as everywhere else on this world.

Computed from Inti Patera'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 patera features on Io

All 170 paterae on Io — mapped together, with the naming theme and the size distribution.