This image, taken with the Narrow Angle Camera (NAC), shows a large crater in Mercury's southern hemisphere that has not yet been assigned a name. The International Astronomical Union has established a set of rules which govern the naming of features on planets and their moons. This crater eventually will be named for a deceased artist, musician, painter or author who has made outstanding contributions to his or her field and who has been considered a historically significant figure for at least 50 years.

This image was acquired as part of MDIS's high-resolution surface morphology base map. The surface morphology base map will cover more than 90% of Mercury's surface with an average resolution of 250 meters/pixel (0.16 miles/pixel or 820 feet/pixel). Images acquired for the surface morphology base map typically have off-vertical Sun angles (i.e., high incidence angles) and visible shadows so as to reveal clearly the topographic form of geologic features.

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.

Date acquired: June 16, 2011
Image Mission Elapsed Time (MET): 216681550
Image ID: 384570
Instrument: Narrow Angle Camera (NAC) of the Mercury Dual Imaging System (MDIS)
Center Latitude: -72.54°
Center Longitude: 121.1° E
Resolution: 202 meters/pixel
Scale: The large crater is 152 km (94 miles) in diameter.
Incidence Angle: 81.2°
Emission Angle: 6.8°
Phase Angle: 88.0°

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.