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An albedo feature is a large area on the surface of a planet
Planet

A planet , as 2006 definition of planet by the International Astronomical Union , is a celestial body orbiting a star or Stellar evolution#Stellar remnants that is massive enough to be rounded by its own gravity, is not massive enough to cause thermonuclear fusion, and has cleared the neighbourhood of planetesimals....
 (or other solar system
Solar System

The Solar System consists of the Sun and those Astronomical object bound to it by gravity: the eight planets and five dwarf planets, their 173 known Natural satellite, and billions of Small Solar System body....
 body) which shows a contrast in brightness or darkness (albedo
Albedo

The albedo of an object is the extent to which it diffusely reflects light from the Sun. It is therefore a more specific form of the term reflectivity....
) with adjacent areas.

Historically, albedo features were the very first (and usually only) features to be seen and named on Mars
MARS

In cryptography, MARS is a block cipher that was IBM's submission to the Advanced Encryption Standard process. MARS was selected as an AES finalist in August 1999, after the AES2 conference in March 1999, where it was voted as the fifth and last finalist algorithm....
 and Mercury
Mercury (planet)

Mercury is the innermost and smallest planet in the Solar System, orbiting the Sun once every 88 days. The orbit of Mercury has the highest Orbital eccentricity of all the Solar System planets, and it has the smallest axial tilt....
. Early classical maps (such as those of Schiaparelli
Giovanni Schiaparelli

Giovanni Virginio Schiaparelli was an Italy astronomer. He studied at the University of Turin and Berlin Observatory and worked for over forty years at Brera Observatory....
 and Antoniadi) showed only albedo features, and it was not until the arrival of space probe
Space probe

A robotic spacecraft is a spacecraft with no humans on board, that is usually under telerobotic control. A robotic spacecraft designed to make scientific research measurements is often called a space probe....
s that other surface features such as crater
Impact crater

In the broadest sense, the term impact crater can be applied to any depression, natural or manmade, resulting from the high velocity impact of a projectile with larger body....
s could be seen.

On bodies other than Mars and Mercury, an albedo feature is sometimes called a regio.

On bodies with a very thick atmosphere like Venus
Venus

Venus is the second-closest planet to the Sun, orbiting it every 224.7 Earth days. The planet is named after Venus , the Roman mythology goddess of love....
 or Titan
Titan (moon)

Titan or Saturn VI is the largest natural satellite of Saturn, the only moon known to have a dense celestial body atmosphere, and the only object other than Earth for which clear evidence of stable bodies of surface liquid has been found....
, permanent albedo features cannot be seen using ordinary optical telescopes because the surface is not visible, and only clouds and other transient atmospheric phenomena are seen.

The very first albedo feature ever seen on another planet was Syrtis Major
Syrtis Major

Syrtis Major Planum is a "dark spot" located in the boundary between the northern lowlands and southern highlands of Mars . It was discovered, on the basis of data from Mars Global Surveyor, to be a low-relief shield volcano, but was formerly believed to be a plain, and was then known as Syrtis Major Planitia....
 on Mars in the 17th century.

Today, thanks to space probes, very high-resolution images of surface features on Mars and Mercury are available, and the classical nomenclature based on albedo features has fallen somewhat into disuse.






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An albedo feature is a large area on the surface of a planet
Planet

A planet , as 2006 definition of planet by the International Astronomical Union , is a celestial body orbiting a star or Stellar evolution#Stellar remnants that is massive enough to be rounded by its own gravity, is not massive enough to cause thermonuclear fusion, and has cleared the neighbourhood of planetesimals....
 (or other solar system
Solar System

The Solar System consists of the Sun and those Astronomical object bound to it by gravity: the eight planets and five dwarf planets, their 173 known Natural satellite, and billions of Small Solar System body....
 body) which shows a contrast in brightness or darkness (albedo
Albedo

The albedo of an object is the extent to which it diffusely reflects light from the Sun. It is therefore a more specific form of the term reflectivity....
) with adjacent areas.

Historically, albedo features were the very first (and usually only) features to be seen and named on Mars
MARS

In cryptography, MARS is a block cipher that was IBM's submission to the Advanced Encryption Standard process. MARS was selected as an AES finalist in August 1999, after the AES2 conference in March 1999, where it was voted as the fifth and last finalist algorithm....
 and Mercury
Mercury (planet)

Mercury is the innermost and smallest planet in the Solar System, orbiting the Sun once every 88 days. The orbit of Mercury has the highest Orbital eccentricity of all the Solar System planets, and it has the smallest axial tilt....
. Early classical maps (such as those of Schiaparelli
Giovanni Schiaparelli

Giovanni Virginio Schiaparelli was an Italy astronomer. He studied at the University of Turin and Berlin Observatory and worked for over forty years at Brera Observatory....
 and Antoniadi) showed only albedo features, and it was not until the arrival of space probe
Space probe

A robotic spacecraft is a spacecraft with no humans on board, that is usually under telerobotic control. A robotic spacecraft designed to make scientific research measurements is often called a space probe....
s that other surface features such as crater
Impact crater

In the broadest sense, the term impact crater can be applied to any depression, natural or manmade, resulting from the high velocity impact of a projectile with larger body....
s could be seen.

On bodies other than Mars and Mercury, an albedo feature is sometimes called a regio.

On bodies with a very thick atmosphere like Venus
Venus

Venus is the second-closest planet to the Sun, orbiting it every 224.7 Earth days. The planet is named after Venus , the Roman mythology goddess of love....
 or Titan
Titan (moon)

Titan or Saturn VI is the largest natural satellite of Saturn, the only moon known to have a dense celestial body atmosphere, and the only object other than Earth for which clear evidence of stable bodies of surface liquid has been found....
, permanent albedo features cannot be seen using ordinary optical telescopes because the surface is not visible, and only clouds and other transient atmospheric phenomena are seen.

The very first albedo feature ever seen on another planet was Syrtis Major
Syrtis Major

Syrtis Major Planum is a "dark spot" located in the boundary between the northern lowlands and southern highlands of Mars . It was discovered, on the basis of data from Mars Global Surveyor, to be a low-relief shield volcano, but was formerly believed to be a plain, and was then known as Syrtis Major Planitia....
 on Mars in the 17th century.

Today, thanks to space probes, very high-resolution images of surface features on Mars and Mercury are available, and the classical nomenclature based on albedo features has fallen somewhat into disuse. It is however still used for Earth-based observing of Mars by amateur astronomer
Amateur astronomy

Amateur astronomy, a subset of astronomy, is a hobby whose participants enjoy studying and observing celestial objects....
s.

However, for some solar system bodies such as Pluto
Pluto

Pluto , Minor planet names Pluto, is the second-largest known dwarf planet in the Solar System and the tenth-largest body observed directly orbiting the Sun....
 and Ceres which have not been visited by space probes, the best available images show only albedo features. These images were usually taken by the Hubble Space Telescope
Hubble Space Telescope

The Hubble Space Telescope is a Space observatory that was carried into Low Earth orbit STS-31 in April 1990. It is named after the American astronomer Edwin Hubble....
 or by ground-based telescopes using adaptive optics
Adaptive optics

Adaptive optics is a technology used to improve the performance of optics by reducing the effects of rapidly changing optical distortion. It is used in astronomical telescopes and laser communication systems to remove the effects of atmospheric distortion, and in retinal imaging systems to reduce the impact of ocular aberrations....
.

Cydonia Mensae on Mars is an example of an albedo feature.

See also

  • List of albedo features on Mercury
    List of albedo features on Mercury

    This is a list of the albedo features of the planet Mercury as seen by early telescopic observation.Early telescopic observations of Mercury were based on the assumption that Mercury keeps one of its faces permanently turned toward the Sun, through the mechanism of tidal locking....
  • Classical albedo features on Mars
    Classical albedo features on Mars

    File:Marsrglobe2004.gif.The classical albedo features of Mars are those light and dark features which can be seen on the planet Mars through an Earth-based telescope....
  • Massif
    Massif

    In geology, a massif is a section of a planet's Crust that is demarcated by geologic faults or flexures. In the Plate tectonics, a massif tends to retain its internal structure while being displaced as a whole....