(Top) Average along-track tilts of the floors of impact craters (arrows) within and in the vicinity of Mercury's Caloris impact basin superimposed on regional topography. Tilts are obtained from representative MLA tracks across each crater. Arrow length is proportional to tilt. Dashed line shows the ground track of the profile at bottom, (Bottom) Profile MLASCIRDR1107292041 across the 100-km-diameter Atget crater demonstrates northward tilt of the crater floor.

Instrument: Mercury Laser Altimeter (MLA)

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.