Discussion
The south part of the map contains a large volcanic shield (Samodiva Mons) which has released lava flows showing up as brighter lobate markings extending north and east from the shield. The 300 km circle is the landing location - it could be anywhere in there. The closeup, 100 km wide, shows the plains cut by ridges (east-west) and fractures (north-south). The bright hills are cut by many fractures. Little domes at the left edge are small volcanoes. What did Venera 10 land on?
#venus #venera10
OK, what did Venera 10 see? This is the link I gave earlier to Don Mitchell's page about Venus images:
http://mentallandscape.com/C_CatalogVenus.htm
and here is the raw Venera 10 image:
http://mentallandscape.com/C_Venera10.jpg
His expert processing gives us this:
http://mentallandscape.com/C_Venera10_Processed.jpg
(raw, gaps filled from second image, remaining gaps filled by interpolation)
Both of these Venera landers carried a second camera on the opposite side of the lander, but in each case it failed to operate.
#venus #venera10
Here is an old Soviet version of the Venera 10 image, a bit too contrasty so details get lost especially at the horizon. But what we see is different from Venera 9's boulders. This is a nearly flat area with platy slabs of rock interspersed with darker gravelly soil. One of the rocky slabs is cracked. The two objects are a densitometer to measure surface hardness and a lens cover ejected from the camera after landing.
#venus #venera10
We have seen the Venera 9 and 10 panoramas, but take a look at this from the Planetary Society:
https://www.planetary.org/space-images/rectified-vs-original-venera-9-and-10-panoramas
(presented without any explanation on that page). This version has more detail:
https://www.planetary.org/space-images/standing-on-venus-with-venera-10
These are artistic re-workings of the panoramas, rearranging bits of the images to create a more understandable view. I show them because they pop up in image searches and are often misrepresented as original images.
#venus #venera10
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