The Solar System - Word Search - PUZZLE #19 TETHYS - August 2025

PUZZLE #19 - TETHYS 

IN-CONTEXT WORD DEFINITIONS

Odysseus: Odysseus is a massive impact basin on Tethys, measuring about 450 km across—nearly two-fifths the diameter of the moon itself. It is one of the most prominent features on Tethys and is named after the hero of Homer’s Odyssey. Its collapsed, flattened shape suggests that Tethys’s icy crust was too weak to support a deep basin when the impact occurred.

Ithaca: Ithaca Chasma is a giant canyon system on Tethys, stretching over 2,000 km long and up to 100 km wide. It may have formed when Tethys’s internal ocean froze and expanded, cracking the surface. The feature is named after Ithaca, Odysseus's legendary homeland in The Odyssey.

Odyssey: In the context of Tethys, Odyssey refers to the mythological theme used in naming surface features. Many of Tethys’s geological structures are named after characters and places from Homer’s Odyssey—a Greek epic—following the tradition of using literary or mythological sources in celestial naming conventions.

Impact Basin: An impact basin is a large, circular depression formed by the collision of an asteroid or comet. Odysseus is the primary impact basin on Tethys. Its size and structure offer clues about the strength and composition of Tethys’s icy crust at the time of the impact.

Homogeneous: Homogeneous means “uniform in composition.” Tethys appears to be mostly homogeneous, made up almost entirely of water ice, with only a small amount of rock. This makes it one of the least dense major moons in the solar system, indicating a mostly icy interior with little internal differentiation.

Homer: refers to a named impact crater on Tethys, one of Saturn’s icy moons. The crater is named after Homer, the ancient Greek poet traditionally credited with writing the Iliad and the Odyssey.

Trojan: refers to the small moons that share Tethys’s orbit around Saturn, positioned at stable points called Lagrange points. Tethys has two companion moons, Telesto and Calypso, that maintain a stable gravitational relationship with Tethys as they orbit Saturn.

Tethyan: Tethyan is the adjective form of Tethys, meaning “related to or characteristic of Tethys.” For example, "Tethyan geology" refers to the study of the moon’s icy surface, including craters, chasms, and ridges.

Graben: A graben is a block of crust that has dropped between two faults, forming a trench-like structure. Parts of Ithaca Chasma on Tethys are considered graben formations, indicating that tectonic stretching once affected the moon's icy surface.

Secret Word: Named for a character in Homer’s Iliad, and in the context of Tethys, it is the name of a crater on the moon. This follows the convention of naming Tethys’s surface features after figures from classical Greek literature, especially The Odyssey and The Iliad.