Mixcoatl Fluctus
What Mixcoatl Fluctus is
Mixcoatl Fluctus is a fluctus — a flow of erupted material — on Io, 246 km across, centred at 46.3° S, 141.2° W. It is the 46th largest named feature on Io and the 9th largest of its class there.
Where the name comes from
Aztec cloud-serpent, a storm god who uses lightning arrows as his weapon. The International Astronomical Union approved the name in 2023, under the theme it applies to every fluctus on Io. Of the 19 features of this class catalogued on Io, the naming categories run China (3), Japan (2), Teutonic (1), Norse (1).
What it would take to settle Mixcoatl Fluctus
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 46.3° S, 141.2° W.
What this spot has going for it is sunlight — 69% of the sunlight the sunniest latitude on Io gets. What works against it is water — same as everywhere else on this world.
Computed from Mixcoatl Fluctus'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 fluctus features on Io
All 19 fluctus on Io — mapped together, with the naming theme and the size distribution.