PIA14856: Sublime Sublimation, Not Subliminal
 Target Name:  Mercury
 Is a satellite of:  Sol (our sun)
 Mission:  MESSENGER
 Spacecraft:  MESSENGER
 Instrument:  Mercury Dual Imaging System (MDIS) 
 Product Size:  1158 x 3000 pixels (w x h)
 Produced By:  Johns Hopkins University/APL
 Full-Res TIFF:  PIA14856.tif (10.43 MB)
 Full-Res JPEG:  PIA14856.jpg (262.3 kB)

Click on the image above to download a moderately sized image in JPEG format (possibly reduced in size from original)

Original Caption Released with Image:

View of a section of the floor and peak-ring mountains of the Raditladi impact basin, including the area in a previous Gallery image. The individual frames in the mosaic are about 20 km wide. The rounded, depressions, called "hollows" are a fascinating discovery of MESSENGER's orbital mission and may have been formed by sublimation of a component of the material when exposed by the Raditladi impact. This image was created by merging high-resolution monochrome images from MESSENGER's Narrow Angle Camera with a lower-resolution enhanced-color image obtained by the Wide Angle Camera.

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 is scheduled to acquire more than 75,000 images in support of MESSENGER's science goals.

Date Presented: September 29, 2011, at a NASA press briefing
Instrument: Mercury Dual Imaging System (MDIS)

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.

Image Credit:
NASA/Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory/Carnegie Institution of Washington

Image Addition Date:
2011-09-30