The large crater seen here, located in Mercury's northern plains, exhibits signs of extensive flooding by lava. Similar to ghost craters that have been completely covered by volcanic flows, much of Monteverde's northern rim and interior have been flooded and filled in by lava. Only the remains of Monteverdi's southern rim jut above the relatively flat interior of the crater. This crater was named after the Italian composer Claudio Monteverdi (1567-1643), whose music marks the transition from the Renaissance style of music to the Baroque style.

This image was acquired as part of MDIS's minimum-phase-angle color campaign. Near the north polar region, the incidence angle (measured from the vertical) is always fairly high because the Sun is low on the horizon. The minimum-phase-angle color campaign acquires images under conditions that minimize the shadows in an image by viewing the surface as nearly as possible from the same direction as the Sun's illumination, which minimizes the phase angle. Images are acquired through five of the WAC's narrow-band color filters, for regions north of 60° N, at an average resolution of 500 meters/pixel. The minimum-phase-angle color campaign began in March 2013.

Date acquired: April 18, 2013
Image Mission Elapsed Time (MET): 8598082, 8598073, 8598079
Image ID: 3905084, 3905081, 3905083
Instrument: Wide Angle Camera (WAC) of the Mercury Dual Imaging System (MDIS)
WAC filters: 9, 7, 6 (996, 748, 433 nanometers) in red, green, and blue
Center Latitude: 63.54°
Center Longitude: 275.7° E
Resolution: 320 meters/pixel
Scale: Monteverdi is 133 km in diameter (83 miles).
Incidence Angle: 76.4°
Emission Angle: 48.3°
Phase Angle: 28.0°

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. MESSENGER acquired over 150,000 images and extensive other data sets. MESSENGER is capable of continuing orbital operations until early 2015.

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