Within Mercury's vast northern volcanic plains, compressional deformation is commonly localized by impact craters that were buried beneath lava flows. Today's image highlights one of these buried "ghost" craters, where only this convergence of tectonic features (a wrinkle-ridge ring) hints at the presence of the hidden crater.

This image was acquired as part of MDIS's high-resolution surface morphology base map. The surface morphology base map covers more than 99% of Mercury's surface with an average resolution of 200 meters/pixel. Images acquired for the surface morphology base map typically are obtained at off-vertical Sun angles (i.e., high incidence angles) and have visible shadows so as to reveal clearly the topographic form of geologic features.

Date acquired: August 02, 2011
Image Mission Elapsed Time (MET): 220806441
Image ID: 583303
Instrument: Wide Angle Camera (WAC) of the Mercury Dual Imaging System (MDIS)
WAC filter: 7 (748 nanometers)
Center Latitude: 79.69°
Center Longitude: 102.3° E
Resolution: 67 meters/pixel
Scale: The "ghost crater" in this image is approximately 35 km (22 mi.) in diameter
Incidence Angle: 81.8°
Emission Angle: 1.2°
Phase Angle: 83.0°

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. MESSENGER acquired over 150,000 images and extensive other data sets. MESSENGER is capable of continuing orbital operations until early 2015.

For information regarding the use of images, see the MESSENGER image use policy.