Tir Planitia is a large plain on the planet

Mercury Mercury commonly refers to: * Mercury (planet), the nearest planet to the Sun * Mercury (element), a metallic chemical element with the symbol Hg * Mercury (mythology), a Roman god Mercury or The Mercury may also refer to: Companies * Merc ...

. The name Tir (تیر) is the

Persian Persian may refer to: * People and things from Iran, historically called ''Persia'' in the English language ** Persians, the majority ethnic group in Iran, not to be conflated with the Iranic peoples ** Persian language, an Iranian language of the ...

word for "Mercury", and the name was approved in 1976. It was first observed in detail by

Mariner 10 ''Mariner 10'' was an American Robotic spacecraft, robotic space probe launched by NASA on 3 November 1973, to fly by the planets Mercury (planet), Mercury and Venus. It was the first spacecraft to perform flybys of multiple planets. ''Ma ...

. It lies between the large crater

Mozart Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (27 January 17565 December 1791), baptised as Joannes Chrysostomus Wolfgangus Theophilus Mozart, was a prolific and influential composer of the Classical period (music), Classical period. Despite his short life, his ra ...

and the ancient Tolstoj basin. Tir Planitia is one of four named plains that surround the

Caloris basin Caloris Planitia is a plain within a large impact basin on Mercury, informally named Caloris, about in diameter. It is one of the largest impact basins in the Solar System. "Calor" is Latin for "heat" and the basin is so-named because the Sun ...

(with

Mearcair Planitia Mearcair Planitia is a large plain on the planet Mercury. The name Mearcair is the Irish word for "Mercury", and the name was approved in 2017. It was first observed in detail by MESSENGER. It lies between the large crater Raditladi and the a ...

, Stilbon Planitia, and Odin Planitia). All of these plains are classified as ''smooth'', as opposed to ''intracrater'' plains which have rougher topography. They also contain areas where kilometer-scale knobs protrude above the plains, and these areas are called the Odin Formation. The Odin Formation is interpreted as a mixture of impact melt and blocky basin ejecta, formed by the Caloris impact event.Denevi, B. W., Earnst, C. M., Prockter, L. M., and Robinson, M. S., 2018. The Geologic History of Mercury. In ''Mercury: The View After

MESSENGER ''MESSENGER'' was a NASA robotic space probe that orbited the planet Mercury between 2011 and 2015, studying Mercury's chemical composition, geology, and magnetic field. The name is a backronym for "Mercury Surface, Space Environment, Geoche ...

'' edited by Sean C. Solomon, Larry R. Nittler, and Brian J. Anderson. Cambridge Planetary Science. Section 6.3.3. The crater

Fet The field-effect transistor (FET) is a type of transistor that uses an electric field to control the flow of current in a semiconductor. FETs (JFETs or MOSFETs) are devices with three terminals: ''source'', ''gate'', and ''drain''. FETs contr ...

is near the center of Tir Planitia.

Hovnatanian The Hovnatanyan family ( hy, Հովնաթանյաններ, ''Hovnat'anyanner'') was a prominent Armenian family of painters. They include five generations from 17th to 19th centuries. Hovnatanyans are originally from the village of Shorot, Yernj ...

crater is southwest of Fet. The craters Amru Al-Qays and Nureyev are in northern Tir Planitia. File:Tir Planitia MESSENGER WAC IGF to RGB.jpg, Exaggerated color image of part of Tir Planitia by

crater is in lower left. File:Fet crater EN0213151904M.jpg, Oblique view of

crater (upper left) in Tir Planitia, showing the nature of the smooth plain

References

Plains on Mercury {{crater-stub