This color context image shows equatorial regions on the side of Mercury
seen during MESSENGER’s departure from Mercury on October 6, 2008.
Mercury’s true colors are very subtle (see PIA11364), but statistical methods can take
advantage of the ability of MDIS to take pictures in 11 narrow color bands
spread across visible and near-infrared wavelengths (400 to 1050 nm). Such
methods greatly enhance subtle color differences in the materials at Mercury’s
surface, providing insight into the compositional variations present on Mercury
and the geologic processes that created those color differences. The bright
yellow halo around Kuiper crater (62 kilometers (39 miles) in diameter; just
below center) stands out as bright and colorful mostly because of its young
age (see PIA11355). When the crater was formed,
material from beneath the surface was ejected outwards and formed the bright
surrounding blanket. As time passes, this young material will suffer
micrometeorite impacts and the ravages of solar wind bombardment and will
gradually become darker and redder. Several hundred million years from
now, Kuiper’s distinctive rays will fade into the background. The wispy blue
linear features are rays from distant young impact craters. The bright orange
material (left arrow) in the floor of Lermontov crater (152 kilometers (94 miles)
in diameter) was most likely deposited by volcanic eruptions in Mercury’s
distant past. A mysterious dark bluish material is seen in many places on
Mercury, and new data from the second flyby reveal a small area with a high
concentration (right arrow) (see PIA11357). Once MESSENGER goes
into orbit about Mercury, its full complement of instruments will examine these
diverse locations and help unravel the processes that accompanied
formation and later modification of Mercury’s crust. North is up for this image,
and the white box indicates the boundaries of a close-up view of a portion of
this scene (see PIA11410).
Date Acquired: October 6, 2008
Instrument: Wide Angle Camera (WAC) of the Mercury Dual Imaging System (MDIS)
Scale: The width of this scene is about 4,000 kilometers (2,500 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.
