Sousa, the large crater in the southeast corner of this image, was named after John Philip Sousa (1854-1932). He was an American composer and conductor known for his military marches including The Washington Post, Semper Fidelis and The Stars and Stripes Forever. This crater contains remnants of a peak ring and has a clear ejecta blanket. If you look at the ejecta blanket hard enough, you can almost see fireworks! Happy 4th of July from MESSENGER!

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: January 23, 2012
Image Mission Elapsed Time (MET): 235767604
Image ID: 1300015
Instrument: Wide Angle Camera (WAC) of the Mercury Dual Imaging System (MDIS)
WAC filter: 7 (748 nanometers)
Center Latitude: 47.28°
Center Longitude: 2.72° E
Resolution: 201 meters/pixel
Scale: The crater has a diameter of approximately 120 km (75 miles).
Incidence Angle: 77.4°
Emission Angle: 33.7°
Phase Angle: 111.2°

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.