Tarsus Regio
What Tarsus Regio is
Tarsus Regio is a regio — a large area distinguished by its brightness or colour — on Io, 1,499 km across, centred at 36.7° S, 53.4° W. It is the 4th largest named feature on Io and the 4th largest of its class there.
Where the name comes from
Io passed through here in her wanderings. The International Astronomical Union approved the name in 1979, under the theme it applies to every regio on Io. Of the 10 features of this class catalogued on Io, the naming categories run Greek (9), Italy (1).
What it would take to settle Tarsus Regio
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 36.7° S, 53.4° W.
What this spot has going for it is sunlight — 80% of the sunlight the sunniest latitude on Io gets. What works against it is water — same as everywhere else on this world.
Computed from Tarsus Regio'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 regio features on Io
All 10 regiones on Io — mapped together, with the naming theme and the size distribution.