MESSENGER's Narrow Angle Camera (NAC) on the Mercury Dual Imaging System
(MDIS) acquired this view of Mercury's surface illuminated obliquely from
the right by the Sun. The unnamed crater (52 kilometers, or 31 miles, in
diameter) in the center of the image displays a telephone-shaped collapse
feature on its floor. Such a collapse feature could reflect past volcanic
activity at and just below the surface of this particular crater.
MESSENGER team members are examining closely the more than 1200 images
returned from this flyby for other surface features that can provide clues
to the geological history of the innermost planet.
The crater is located in the southern hemisphere of Mercury, on the side
that was not viewed by Mariner 10 during any of its three flybys
(1974-1975). This scene was imaged while MESSENGER was departing from
Mercury from a distance of about 19,300 kilometers (12,000 miles), about 1
hour after the spacecraft's closest encounter with Mercury. The image is
of a region approximately 236 kilometers (147 miles) across, and craters
as small as 1.6 kilometers (1 mile) can be seen.
Mission Elapsed Time (MET) of image: 108828208
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.
