![Click here for annotated version of PIA10936](https://webarchive.library.unt.edu/eot2008/20090512125554im_/http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/figures/PIA10936_fig1_thumb.jpg)
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larger annotated version
MESSENGER snapped this image of Mercury’s horizon about 56 minutes before
the spacecraft’s closest pass by the planet. The distinctive peak-ring
basin Dürer (named from Mariner 10 photos for the German artist Albrecht
Dürer) is visible. The smaller crater Mickiewicz (named for the Polish
poet Adam Mickiewicz) can also be seen, with a smaller central peak-ring
structure in the middle of its crater floor. Craters form ring structures
during the impact process that creates the crater, and the number and
characteristics of the rings depend on the crater’s size. Raditladi,
imaged for the first time by MESSENGER and recently named, also shows a
pronounced peak-ring structure.
Date Acquired: January 14, 2008
Image Mission Elapsed Time (MET): 108821505
Instrument: Narrow Angle Camera (NAC) of the Mercury Dual Imaging
System (MDIS)
Scale: Dürer crater is about 190 kilometers (120 miles) in diameter
Spacecraft Altitude: 18,300 kilometers (11,400 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.