PIA19423: Awesome Abedin
 Target Name:  Mercury
 Is a satellite of:  Sol (our sun)
 Mission:  MESSENGER
 Spacecraft:  MESSENGER
 Instrument:  Mercury Dual Imaging System (MDIS) 
 Product Size:  3000 x 1242 pixels (w x h)
 Produced By:  Johns Hopkins University/APL
 Full-Res TIFF:  PIA19423.tif (3.731 MB)
 Full-Res JPEG:  PIA19423.jpg (356.1 kB)

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:

This mosaic of oblique images highlights the spectacular interior of Abedin crater. The crater floor is covered with once-molten rock melted by the impact event that formed Abedin. Cracks that formed as this melt cooled are visible. Particularly intriguing is the shallow depression that lies amidst the central peaks of the crater and may be volcanic in origin. Color imaging shows that this depression is surrounded by reddish material, as seen at other sites of explosive volcanism across Mercury.

Instrument: Mercury Dual Imaging System (MDIS)
Center Latitude: 61.7°
Center Longitude: 349.3° E
Scale: Abedin crater is 116 km (72 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:
2015-04-16