This image shows the margin of Goethe basin. A wrinkle-ridge ring marks the margin of the nearly completely buried basin. Graben are found within two interior ridge rings and throughout the basin fill material. Read the full Mission News story for more details about a recently published scientific study of these unusual tectonic landforms.

Instrument: Mercury Dual Imaging System (MDIS)
Center Latitude: 80.4°
Center Longitude: 308.1° E
Scale: This image is about 250 kilometers (155 miles) across

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.