page_title: Planetary nomenclature
section_title: Mars
hierarchical_section_title: Planetary nomenclature / Categories for naming features on planets and satellites / Mars and martian satellites / Mars
caption_attribution_description: English: Historical map of planet mars from Giovanni Schiaparelli Deutsch: Historische Karte der Marsoberfläche nach Giovanni Schiaparelli Русский: Историческая карта Марса в цилиндрической проекции, выполненная Джованни Скиапарелли. Français&#160;: Carte de Mars par fr:Giovanni Schiaparelli.
context_page_description: Planetary nomenclature, like terrestrial nomenclature, is a system of uniquely identifying features on the surface of a planet or natural satellite so that the features can be easily located, described, and discussed. Since the invention of the telescope, astronomers have given names to the surface features they have discerned, especially on the Moon and Mars. To standardize planetary nomenclature, the International Astronomical Union was assigned in 1919 the task of selecting official names for features on Solar System bodies.
context_section_description: When space probes have landed on Mars, individual small features such as rocks, dunes, and hollows have often been given informal names. Many of these are frivolous: features have been named after ice cream (such as Cookies N Cream); cartoon characters (such as SpongeBob SquarePants and Patrick); and '70s music acts (such as ABBA and the Bee Gees).
caption: Early map of Mars by Giovanni Schiaparelli, which depicts classical albedo features
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