Alpha Regio is a region of the planet

Venus Venus is the second planet from the Sun. It is often called Earth's "twin" or "sister" planet for having almost the same size and mass, and the closest orbit to Earth's. While both are rocky planets, Venus has an atmosphere much thicker ...

extending for about 1500 kilometers centered at 22°S, 5°E. It was discovered and named by Richard Goldstein in 1964. The name was approved by the

International Astronomical Union The International Astronomical Union (IAU; , UAI) is an international non-governmental organization (INGO) with the objective of advancing astronomy in all aspects, including promoting astronomical research, outreach, education, and developmen ...

's Working Group for Planetary System Nomenclature (IAU/WGPSN) between 1976 and 1979.

Maxwell Montes Maxwell Montes is a mountain range on the planet Venus, of which Skadi Mons is the List of tallest mountains in the Solar System, highest. General description Located on Ishtar Terra, the more northern of the planet's two major highlands, Ma ...

, Alpha Regio, and Beta Regio are the three exceptions to the rule that the surface features of Venus are to be named for

female An organism's sex is female ( symbol: ♀) if it produces the ovum (egg cell), the type of gamete (sex cell) that fuses with the male gamete (sperm cell) during sexual reproduction. A female has larger gametes than a male. Females and ...

s: women or

goddess A goddess is a female deity. In some faiths, a sacred female figure holds a central place in religious prayer and worship. For example, Shaktism (one of the three major Hinduism, Hindu sects), holds that the ultimate deity, the source of all re ...

es. The surface of the region is what is known as ''Tessera'', meaning a terrain that has been highly deformed and where the deformation strikes in multiple directions and is closely spaced. The term comes from the Greek word for “tiled” (Russian investigators analyzing Venera 15 and Venera 16 imagery thought this terrain looked like a parquet floor). Like all ''tessera'' regions, it sits above the surrounding terrain at an elevation of 1 to 2 kilometers, and is heavily deformed by what appears to be contractional folding. Like most ''tessera'' units, the surrounding volcanic plains appear to have flowed around Alpha's margins and thus are younger than Alpha. An infrared map prepared by the '' Venus Express'' orbiter shows that the rocks on the Alpha Regio plateau are lighter in colour and look old compared to the majority of the planet. On Earth, such light-coloured rocks are usually

granite Granite ( ) is a coarse-grained (phanerite, phaneritic) intrusive rock, intrusive igneous rock composed mostly of quartz, alkali feldspar, and plagioclase. It forms from magma with a high content of silica and alkali metal oxides that slowly coo ...

and form continents.

References

{{Venus Surface features of Venus

See also

References