"They call me Muddy Water, I'm just as restless man, as the deep blue sea..." Waters crater has recently been named in honor of Blues legend "Muddy Waters" (McKinley Morganfield, April 4, 1913 - April 30, 1983). Muddy Waters was not only influential in the birth and growth of blues in Chicago, but also in many genres of modern music including rhythm and blues, jazz, country and rock 'n' roll. The muddy 'water' emanating from this crater is dark impact melt. As can be seen from the inset color image, the impact melt is not only dark, but also bluer (shallower spectral slope) than the surrounding terrain.

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 200-meter/pixel morphology base map. It is not possible to cover all of Mercury's surface at this high resolution, but typically several areas of high scientific interest are imaged in this mode each week.

Date acquired: September 24, 2012
Image Mission Elapsed Time (MET): 256986189
Image ID: 2641461
Instrument: Narrow Angle Camera (NAC) of the Mercury Dual Imaging System (MDIS)
Center Latitude: -9.30°
Center Longitude: 254.8° E
Resolution: 82 meters/pixel
Scale: Waters crater is 15 kilometers (9.3 miles) in diameter.
Incidence Angle: 60.1°
Emission Angle: 24.6°
Phase Angle: 35.4°

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.

For information regarding the use of images, see the MESSENGER image use policy.