This view shows a remarkable line of secondary craters, formed by a set of similar-sized blocks thrown out by the impact that formed an unnamed 150-km diameter crater, whose rim is just to the southeast of the lower right end of the crater chain. The individual secondary craters in the chain are each about 4 to 6 km wide. The uniformity of the size of these secondaries and their arrangement in a line nearly radial to the center of the primary crater hint at the complex physics involved in the impact process.

This image was acquired as part of MDIS's high-resolution stereo imaging campaign. Images from the stereo imaging campaign are used in combination with the surface morphology base map or the albedo base map to create high-resolution stereo views of Mercury's surface, with an average resolution of 200 meters/pixel. Viewing the surface under the same Sun illumination conditions but from two or more viewing angles enables information about the small-scale topography of Mercury's surface to be obtained.

Date acquired: January 20, 2012
Image Mission Elapsed Time (MET): 235551551
Image ID: 1289763
Instrument: Narrow Angle Camera (NAC) of the Mercury Dual Imaging System (MDIS)
Center Latitude: -35.87°
Center Longitude: 19.45° E
Resolution: 175 meters/pixel
Scale: The scene is about 211 km (130 mi.) wide.
Incidence Angle: 68.3°
Emission Angle: 36.1°
Phase Angle: 97.3°

The MESSENGER spacecraft is the first ever to orbit the planet Mercury, and the spacecraft's seven scientific instruments and radio science investigation are unraveling the history and evolution of the Solar System's innermost planet. Visit the Why Mercury? section of this website to learn more about the key science questions that the MESSENGER mission is addressing. During the one-year primary mission, MDIS acquired 88,746 images and extensive other data sets. MESSENGER is now in a year-long extended mission, during which plans call for the acquisition of more than 80,000 additional images to support MESSENGER's science goals.

These images are from MESSENGER, a NASA Discovery mission to conduct the first orbital study of the innermost planet, Mercury. For information regarding the use of images, see the MESSENGER image use policy.