Венерадағы Максвелл таулары

Montes on Venus

Maxwell Montes /'//m//ae//k//s//w//E//l// //'//m//Q//n//t//i://z/ is a mountain range on the planet Venus, of which Skadi Mons is the highest.

Located on Ishtar Terra, the more northern of the planet's two major highlands, Maxwell Montes is high. It rises about 6.4 kilometers above and to the east (21,000 ft above, and 4 miles (6.44 km) to the east) of Lakshmi Planum, and is about long by wide. Due to its elevation, it is the coolest (about ) and least pressurised (about ) location on the surface of Venus. Broad ridges and valleys making up Maxwell Montes and Fortuna Tessera suggest that the topography resulted from compression.

By using radar to probe through the permanent and thick clouds in the Venusian atmosphere and make observations of the surface, scientists at the American Arecibo Radio Telescope in Puerto Rico discovered the extensive highland on Venus that came to be called Maxwell Montes in 1967. In 1978, the space probe Pioneer Venus 1 went into orbit around Venus for the purpose of making radar observations of the Venusian surface. These observations made possible the creation of the first topographic map of the surface of Venus, and confirmed that a point within Maxwell Montes is the highest point above the average level of the planet's surface. Maxwell Montes is named for James Clerk Maxwell whose work in mathematical physics predicted the existence of radio waves, which made radar, and thus the surface observations of Venus, possible. Maxwell Montes, Alpha Regio, and Beta Regio are the three exceptions to the rule that the surface features of Venus are to be named for females. The name, originally given by Ray Jurgens in 1970 on the urging of Tommy Gold, was approved by the International Astronomical Union's Working Group for Planetary System Nomenclature (IAU/WGPSN) between 1976 and 1979.