This image, taken with the Wide Angle Camera (WAC), shows a bright rayed crater in Mercury's southern hemisphere. The rays, created when target material was ejected out onto the surface during the impact that formed the crater, will gradually fade over time due to the effects of Mercury's harsh space environment. The crater is deep enough that the local surface layers were penetrated, exposing low reflectance material (LRM) beneath.
This image was acquired as a high-resolution targeted observation. Targeted observations are images of a small area on Mercury's surface at resolutions much higher than the 250-meter/pixel (820 feet/pixel) morphology base map or the 1-kilometer/pixel (0.6 miles/pixel) color base map. It is not possible to cover all of Mercury's surface at this high resolution during MESSENGER's one-year mission, but several areas of high scientific interest are generally imaged in this mode each week.
Date acquired: February 06, 2012
Image Mission Elapsed Time (MET): 237000734
Image ID: 1359421
Instrument: Wide Angle Camera (WAC) of the Mercury Dual Imaging System (MDIS)
WAC filter: 9 (996 nanometers)
Center Latitude: -17.70°
Center Longitude: 67.69° E
Resolution: 414 meters/pixel
Scale: The central rayed crater is 24 km (15 miles) in diameter.
Incidence Angle: 41.2°
Emission Angle: 12.0°
Phase Angle: 52.3°
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 is scheduled to acquire more than 75,000 images in support of 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.
