This very high resolution image shows the interior of a crater in Mercury's northern hemisphere. Near the base of the crater's northern wall, we can see a subtle curving line, indicated by the arrows. The line represents the edge of a lobe of material that has likely formed by slow movement of loose regolith down the steeper parts of the crater wall under the action of gravity. Geologists refer to this type of movement as "creep."
This image was acquired as part of MDIS's high-resolution surface morphology base map. The surface morphology base map covers more than 99% of Mercury's surface with an average resolution of 200 meters/pixel. Images acquired for the surface morphology base map typically are obtained at off-vertical Sun angles (i.e., high incidence angles) and have visible shadows so as to reveal clearly the topographic form of geologic features.
Date acquired: February 26, 2012
Image Mission Elapsed Time (MET): 238781524
Image ID: 1445441
Instrument: Narrow Angle Camera (NAC) of the Mercury Dual Imaging System (MDIS)
Center Latitude: 45.43°
Center Longitude: 298.8° E
Resolution: 13 meters/pixel
Scale: The edges of the image are about 14 km (8.7 mi.) long.
Incidence Angle: 69.9°
Emission Angle: 0.1°
Phase Angle: 70.0°
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 acquired 88,746 images and extensive other data sets. MESSENGER is now in a year-long extended mission, during which plans call for the acquisition of more than 80,000 additional images to support 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.
