Recently named for the French photographer Eugène Atget, Atget crater, seen in the middle of the lower portion of this NAC image, is distinctive on Mercury's surface due to its dark color. Atget crater is located within Caloris basin, near Apollodorus crater and Pantheon Fossae, which are also both visible in this image to the northwest of Atget. The dark color of the floor of Atget is in contrast to other craters within Caloris basin that exhibit bright materials on their floors, such as the craters Kertész and Sander. Other craters on Mercury, such as Basho and Neruda, have halos of dark material but the dark material does not cover the crater floors. Understanding the variety of bright and dark materials associated with different craters will provide insight into Mercury's composition and the processes that acted on Mercury's surface.

Date Acquired: January 14, 2008
Image Mission Elapsed Time (MET: 108828540
Instrument: Narrow Angle Camera (NAC) of the Mercury Dual Imaging System (MDIS)
Resolution: 520 meters/pixel (0.32 miles/pixel)
Scale: This image shows a scene about 530 kilometers (330 miles) across
Spacecraft Altitude: 20,300 kilometers (12,600 miles)

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.