PIA19406: Hokusai Spectacular!
 Target Name:  Mercury
 Is a satellite of:  Sol (our sun)
 Mission:  MESSENGER
 Spacecraft:  MESSENGER
 Instrument:  Mercury Dual Imaging System (MDIS) 
 Product Size:  5637 x 3031 pixels (w x h)
 Produced By:  Johns Hopkins University/APL
 Full-Res TIFF:  PIA19406.tif (17.11 MB)
 Full-Res JPEG:  PIA19406.jpg (1.133 MB)

Click on the image above to download a moderately sized image in JPEG format (possibly reduced in size from original)

Original Caption Released with Image:

Hokusai crater's rays extend across much of the planet, but its interior is spectacular in its own right. This series of oblique images shows the central peaks, beautiful terraces, and frozen sea of impact melt on the crater floor.

Instrument: Mercury Dual Imaging System (MDIS)
Center Latitude: 57.8°
Center Longitude: 16.8° E
Scale: Hokusai crater is 114 km (71 miles) in diameter

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. In the mission's more than four years of orbital operations, MESSENGER has acquired over 250,000 images and extensive other data sets. MESSENGER's highly successful orbital mission is about to come to an end, as the spacecraft runs out of propellant and the force of solar gravity causes it to impact the surface of Mercury in April 2015.

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

Image Credit:
NASA/Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory/Carnegie Institution of Washington

Image Addition Date:
2015-04-15