Mons (planetary nomenclature)

This article is about extraterrestrial mountains. For other uses, see Mons (disambiguation).
Mons Hadley on the Moon, about 4.5 km (15,000 ft) high.[1]
Olympus Mons on Mars, about 22 km (72,000 ft) high.

Mons /ˈmɒnz/[2] (plural: montes /ˈmɒntiːz/,[2] from the Latin word for "mountain") is a mountain on a celestial body. The term is used in planetary nomenclature: it is a part of the international names of such features. It is capitalized and usually stands after the proper given name, but stands before it in the case of lunar mountains (for example, there is a Martian mountain Arsia Mons and a lunar mountain Mons Argaeus).[3]

The term tholus ("dome") is used for names of smaller (especially domical) uplands, and the term colles ("hills") in names of groups of still smaller knobs. Peculiar round mountains found on Venus get names with the term farrum.[4]

  1. ^ Fred W. Price (1988). The Moon observer's handbook. London: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0-521-33500-3.
  2. ^ a b "Mons". Dictionary.com Unabridged (Online). n.d.
  3. ^ Cite error: The named reference gazetteer_main was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  4. ^ Cite error: The named reference gazetteer_terms was invoked but never defined (see the help page).