Sharaf Regio

Sharaf Regio
	The Brass Knuckles chain of equatorial dark regions on Pluto, with Sharaf Regio labeled as "Ala"
Feature type	Regio
Location	Pluto
Coordinates	11°23′S 238°40′E / 11.38°S 238.67°E
Eponym	Shafika Gil’mievna Sharaf

Sharaf Regio (formerly Ala Macula) is the smallest of the "Brass Knuckles", a series of equatorial dark regions on Pluto. It was initially informally named Ala Macula after Ala [àlà] "earth", the chthonic and most important deity of the Igbo people.^[1]^[2] The International Astronomical Union (IAU) officially approved the name Sharaf Regio after Shafika Gil’mievna Sharaf, a Soviet astronomer who developed an analytical theory for Pluto's motion.^[3]^[4]

References

^ Chang, Kenneth (14 July 2015). "NASA's New Horizons Spacecraft Completes Flyby of Pluto". The New York Times. Retrieved 14 July 2015.
^ Rogers, Adam (14 July 2015). "The New, Nerdy Mythology of Pluto's Place Names". Wired. Retrieved 14 July 2015.
^ "Sharaf Regio". Gazetteer of Planetary Nomenclature. IAU/NASA/USGS. Retrieved 11 September 2024.
^ Gil’mievna, Shafika; Budnikova, N. A. (1969). Theory of Motion of the Planet Pluto Part 1. NASA.

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[1] Chang, Kenneth (14 July 2015). "NASA's New Horizons Spacecraft Completes Flyby of Pluto". The New York Times. Retrieved 14 July 2015.

[2] Rogers, Adam (14 July 2015). "The New, Nerdy Mythology of Pluto's Place Names". Wired. Retrieved 14 July 2015.

[3] "Sharaf Regio". Gazetteer of Planetary Nomenclature. IAU/NASA/USGS. Retrieved 11 September 2024.

[4] Gil’mievna, Shafika; Budnikova, N. A. (1969). Theory of Motion of the Planet Pluto Part 1. NASA.

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