PDS logoPlanetary Data System
PDS Information
Find a Node - Use these links to navigate to any of the 8 publicly accessible PDS Nodes.

This bar indicates that you are within the PDS enterprise which includes 6 science discipline nodes and 2 support nodes which are overseen by the Project Management Office at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC). Each node is led by an expert in the subject discipline, supported by an advisory group of other practitioners of that discipline, and subject to selection and approval under a regular NASA Research Announcement.
Click here to return to the Photojournal Home Page Click here to view a list of Photojournal Image Galleries Photojournal_inner_header
Latest Images  |  Spacecraft & Technology  |  Animations  |  Space Images App  |  Feedback  |  Photojournal Search  

PIA02444: Intercrater Plains and Heavily Cratered Terrain - First Encounter
 Target Name:  Mercury
 Is a satellite of:  Sol (our sun)
 Mission:  Mariner Venus Mercury (Mariner 10) 
 Spacecraft:  Mariner 10
 Product Size:  356 x 311 pixels (w x h)
 Produced By:  Northwestern University 
 Addition Date:  2000-01-18
 Other  
Information: 
Mariner 10 Image Project
 Full-Res TIFF:  PIA02444.tif (132.2 kB)
 Full-Res JPEG:  PIA02444.jpg (33.46 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:

Intercrater plains and heavily cratered terrain typical of much of Mercury outside the area affected by the formation of the Caloris basin are shown in this image (FDS 27488) taken during the spacecraft's first encounter with Mercury. Abundant shallow elongate craters and crater chains are present on the intercrater plains. Large tract of intercrater plains centered at 3 degrees N, 20 degrees W. Prominent scarp Santa Maria Rupes cuts both intercrater plains and old craters. North is to the top of this image which is 200 kilometers across.

The Mariner 10 mission, managed by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory for NASA's Office of Space Science, explored Venus in February 1974 on the way to three encounters with Mercury-in March and September 1974 and in March 1975. The spacecraft took more than 7,000 photos of Mercury, Venus, the Earth and the Moon.

Image Credit:
NASA/JPL/Northwestern University

Image Addition Date:
2000-01-18