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Five new names have been approved for Mars: Angustus Labyrinthus, Chronius Mons, Promethei Mons, Sisyphi Tholus, and Thyles Montes. The names Australis Patera, Angusta Patera, and Cavi Frigores have been marked as dropped in the database. New imagery has shown that the two paterae were named using the wrong descriptor term, and the area previously named Cavi Frigores has been incorporated into the adjacent Cavi Angusti.
The definition of the descriptor term labyrinthus has been expanded from "Complex of intersecting valleys" to "Complex of intersecting valleys or ridges."
See the Gazetteer of Planetary Nomenclature for more information.
The boundary of the Martian feature Cerberus Fossae has been expanded to include nearby fossae. Please see the listing in the Gazetteer of Planetary Nomenclature for the new coordinates and size.
The Gazetteer of Planetary Nomenclature now contains images showing the recently approved names on Phobos.
The following names have been provisionally approved by the IAU for features on Venus. The database information and images showing the features can be seen on the Gazetteer of Planetary Nomenclature.
Chanum Coronae
Witte Patera
Azimua Tholi
Otohime Tholus
The name Oanuava Corona has been changed to the plural form Oanuava Coronae.
All of the names that have been provisionally approved by the IAU Working Group for Planetary System Nomenclature over the past three years were fully approved by the IAU at the General Assembly in Prague last week. The codes in the 'approval status' field for these names have been changed from '3' which denotes provisionally approved to '5' which denotes fully approved. See the Gazetteer of Planetary Nomenclature for details.
The name Toro has been approved for the Martian crater located at 17.05N, 288.24W. For more information, see the list of Martian crater names in the Gazetteer of Planetary Nomenclature.
The name Louth has been approved for the martian crater located at 70.2N, 256.88W. See the Gazetteer of Planetary Nomenclature for more information.
The name Rembrandt has been approved for the Mercury crater located at 33.2S, 271.8W. For more information, see the list of Mercury crater names in the Gazetteer of Planetary Nomenclature.
The name Afekan has been approved for the crater on Titan located at 25.8N, 200.3W. For more information, see the list of Titan crater names in the Gazetteer of Planetary Nomenclature.
The IAU has approved three new names for Titan surface features. Two of the "seas" near Titan's north pole have been named Kraken Mare and Ligeia Mare, and the large island in the northern part of Kraken Mare has been named Mayda Insula.
For more information about these new names, please visit the Titan portion of the Gazetteer of Planetary Nomenclature, and the image that shows the north pole region.
