Diyar Planitia is a region of relatively un-cratered terrain on

Saturn Saturn is the sixth planet from the Sun and the second-largest in the Solar System, after Jupiter. It is a gas giant with an average radius of about nine and a half times that of Earth. It has only one-eighth the average density of Earth; h ...

's moon

Enceladus Enceladus is the sixth-largest moon of Saturn (19th largest in the Solar System). It is about in diameter, about a tenth of that of Saturn's largest moon, Titan. Enceladus is mostly covered by fresh, clean ice, making it one of the most refl ...

. Its location is 0.5° North

Latitude In geography, latitude is a coordinate that specifies the north– south position of a point on the surface of the Earth or another celestial body. Latitude is given as an angle that ranges from –90° at the south pole to 90° at the north pol ...

, 239.7° West

Longitude Longitude (, ) is a geographic coordinate that specifies the east–west position of a point on the surface of the Earth, or another celestial body. It is an angular measurement, usually expressed in degrees and denoted by the Greek letter l ...

while its being approximately 311 km across. Images from the '' Voyager'' probes could not resolve whether Diyar Planitia is part of the ridged plains unit of Enceladus ( Kargel and Pozio 1996) or the smooth plains unit ( Rothery 1999), which is thought to be the youngest terrain on the moon. The more recent (and higher resolution) '' Cassini'' images show that Diyar is a region of relatively low, north-south trending ridges, with several younger fractures cutting across the region along the same trend. Very few

impact craters An impact crater is a circular depression in the surface of a solid astronomical object formed by the hypervelocity impact of a smaller object. In contrast to volcanic craters, which result from explosion or internal collapse, impact craters ...

have been found in Diyar, demonstrating the youthful age of the region. Diyar Planitia is bounded on the north and east by a band of grooved terrain named Harran Sulci. Given the similarity in the spatial relationship between the Sarandib Planitia and Samarkand Sulci, it is likely that the formation of Diyar Planitia and Harran Sulci are related. Diyar Planitia is named after the country that

Khudadad The Kingdom of Mysore was a realm in South India, southern India, traditionally believed to have been founded in 1399 in the vicinity of the modern city of Mysore. From 1799 until 1950, it was a princely state, until 1947 in a subsidiary allia ...

's father rules in ''

Arabian Nights ''One Thousand and One Nights'' ( ar, أَلْفُ لَيْلَةٍ وَلَيْلَةٌ, italic=yes, ) is a collection of Middle Eastern folk tales compiled in Arabic during the Islamic Golden Age. It is often known in English as the ''Arabian ...

''.Planetary Names: Planitia, planitiae: Diyar Planitia on Enceladus
''Origin: Country where Khudadad's father ruled'' Updated: Jul 15, 2008 2:28:11 PM

References

# # {{cite journal , author=Jeff Kargel and Stefania Poxio , title=The Volcanic and Tectonic History of Enceladus , journal=Icarus , year=1996 , volume=119 , pages=385–404 , doi=10.1006/icar.1996.0026 , bibcode=1996Icar..119..385K , issue=2 Surface features of Enceladus