To the human eye, Mercury shows little color variation, especially in
comparison to a colorful planet like Earth. But when images taken through
many color filters are used in combination, differences in the properties
of Mercury’s surface can create a strikingly colorful view of the
innermost planet. Shown here are two color images of Thakur, named for the
Bengali poet, novelist, and Nobel laureate influential in the late 19th
and early 20th centuries. The image on the left was produced by combining
images from three WAC filters into red, green, and blue channels, as a
general representation of the color seen by the human eye (though every
person sees color slightly differently, as discussed for the full-planet
color images PIA11364). The right image was created by statistically comparing
and contrasting images taken through all 11 of the WAC’s narrow-band color
filters, which are sensitive to light not only in the visible portion of
the spectrum but also to light that the human eye cannot see. This method
greatly enhances subtle color differences in the rocks of Mercury’s
surface, providing insight into the compositional variations present on
Mercury and the geologic processes that created those color differences.
Visible on the floor of Thākur crater is the intersection of two ridges,
seen here in unprecedented detail for the first time with MESSENGER’s
newly obtained images.
Date Acquired: October 6, 2008
Image Mission Elapsed Time (MET): 131770496 - 131770546
Instrument: Wide Angle Camera (WAC) of the Mercury Dual Imaging System (MDIS)
Resolution: 460 meters/pixel (0.29 miles/pixel)
Scale: Thākur crater is 118 kilometers in diameter (73 miles)
Spacecraft Altitude: 2,500 kilometers (1,600 miles)
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.