Hecate Tholus

This THEMIS Image of the Day was first released as part of a look at Martian nomenclature. Hecate Tholus = Tholus:small dome-shaped mountain or hill. Hecate:goddess of the crossroads, ghosts and witchcraft. She has three heads (a dog, a snake, and a horse) that face three different directions. She is served by ghost hounds. Hecates Tholus is a volcano located north of Elysium Mons. The image above is a mosaic of daytime IR images. Nomenclature Fact of the Day: Many features on Io, a volcanically active moon of Jupiter, are named for fire, sun, volcano, and thunder goods and goddesses - or for people and places from Dante's Inferno.