This is planetary radio. Welcome back everyone. I'm Matt Kaplan attempting to get over a cold this week.

30 years ago the moon became about a half tonne slimmer.

Unlike lost socks in the dryer, we know exactly where that precious lunar material went.

This week on planetary radio, a visit with the curator of

astromaterials for NASA. And Bruce Betts has another trivia contest for us,

along with his weekly look around the solar system, first let's join Emily

for some mountain climbing and mountain naming on Venus. I'll be right back. with questions and answers. A listener asked, I noticed on a map of Venus that the highest

point on Venus is in a mountain range called Maxwell Montes. I also noticed that this point

has no name. To me that's like having a map name the Himalayas without giving a name to Mount Everest. Why no name?

The Maxwell-Montees, or Maxwell Mountains, represent the highest point on Venus with heights of up to 11 kilometers,

over 35,000 feet above the average elevation on Venus.

The mountain range is named for the Scottish physicist who first proposed the existence of electromagnetic radiation,

James Clerk Maxwell, in recognition of the vital role played by radio and radar techniques in studying

the cloud-shroud shrouded surface of Venus.

Incidentally, Maxwell Montes is one of only three features on Venus whose names predate the

decision by the International Astronomical Union Working Group to commemorate only female personages on that planet.

The others are two more high elevation areas known simply as Alpha and Beta.

As the plural term Montes implies, the Maxwell feature comprises a range of mountains somewhat similar to the Tibetan Plateau and Himalayas on Earth,

so you might expect the individual mountain peaks in Maxwell Montes would be named as they are in the Himalayas.

Why don't they have their own names?

Stay tuned to planetary radio to find out. Dr.

Carleton C. Allen is the curator of astromaterials at the Johnson Space Center.

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