MESSENGER's high-resolution images obtained during the mission's second
Mercury flyby have revealed a number of irregularly shaped depressions on
the floor of Praxiteles crater. These depressions are intriguing
indications of possible past volcanic activity within this crater. View
the previously released NAC image of Praxiteles for additional discussion.
The image shown here is similar to one recently published in the 1 May
issue of Science magazine. This image was created by first
mosaicking together the highest-resolution NAC images available of
Praxiteles (one of which is shown in the previous web release), to produce
complete coverage of the crater. Independently, an enhanced-color image of
Praxiteles was created by using images from all 11 WAC narrow-band color
filters. (Visit last week's web release for more examples of
enhanced-color images PIA12051.) The WAC images provide important color
information, but the WAC resolution is considerably less than that of the
mosaicked NAC images. Thus, by overlaying a slightly transparent version
of the WAC enhanced-color image on the high-resolution NAC mosaic, the
high-resolution color view of Praxiteles crater shown here was produced.
This overlay-color view helps associate the color features with the
morphologic surface features. The fact that the irregularly shaped
depressions on the floor of Praxiteles are associated with bright orange
and yellow color features provides evidence that the depressions may be
related to past volcanic activity in this area of Mercury.
Date Acquired: October 6, 2008
Instrument: Wide Angle Camera (WAC) and Narrow Angle Camera (NAC) of the Mercury Dual Imaging
System (MDIS)
Resolution: 210 meters/pixel (0.13 miles/pixel)
Scale: Praxiteles crater has a diameter of 182 kilometers (113 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.