PIA02946: Large Circular Basin Flooded and then Cratered
 Target Name:  Mercury
 Is a satellite of:  Sol (our sun)
 Mission:  Mariner Venus Mercury (Mariner 10) 
 Spacecraft:  Mariner 10
 Product Size:  311 x 356 pixels (w x h)
 Produced By:  Northwestern University 
 Producer ID:  P15195
 Addition Date:  2000-08-05
 Other  
Information: 
Mariner 10 Image Project
 Full-Res TIFF:  PIA02946.tif (63.02 kB)
 Full-Res JPEG:  PIA02946.jpg (21.13 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:

As Mariner 10 passed by Mercury on its second encounter with the planet on September 21, 1974, this picture (FDS 166850) of a large circular (350 kilometer, 220 mile diameter) basin was obtained near the morning terminator. The basin appears to have been flooded with the plain material and then subsequently cratered by numerous large events. Filling of the basin, presumably by lava flows analogous to those of the lunar maria, partially inundated small craters which had formed along the basin rim (lower left) and in some places overflowed the basin rim and spilled onto the surrounding terrain (top).

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:
2000-08-05