The International Astronomical Union recently approved names for 16 impact craters on Mercury. Several of the craters are from areas seen for the first time at close range by MESSENGER during its second Mercury flyby. The locations of these newly named craters are shown on this MESSENGER mosaic of Mercury. To learn more, read the full news story. The new crater names are:

• Abedin, for Zainul Abedin, Bangladeshi painter and printmaker (1914-1976).
• Berkel, for Sabri Berkel, Turkish painter and printmaker (1909-1993).
• Benoit, for Rigaud Benoit, Haitian painter (1911-1987).
• Calvino, Italo Calvino, Italian writer (1923-1985).
• de Graft, for Joe de Graft, Ghanaian playwright, poet, and novelist (1924-1978).
• Derain, for Andre Derain, French painter (1880-1954).
• Eastman, for Charles A. Eastman (Ohiyesa), Sioux author (1858-1939).
• Gibran, for Kahlil (Khalil) Gibran, Lebanese-American artist, poet, and writer (1883-1931).
• Hemingway, for Ernest Hemingway, American author (1899-1961).
• Hodgkins, for Frances Hodgkins, New Zealand painter (1869-1947).
• Izquierdo, for María Izquierdo, Mexican painter (c.1902-1955).
• Kunisada, for Utagawa Kunisada, Japanese woodblock printmaker (1786-1864).
• Lange, for Dorothea Lange, American photographer (1895-1965).
• Matabei, for Iwasa Matabei, Japanese painter (1578-1650).
• Munkácsy, for Mihály Munkácsy, Hungarian painter (1844-1900).
• To Ngoc Van, Vietnamese painter (1906-1954).

Craters on Mercury are name for deceased artists, writers, and composers. The full list of feature names on Mercury, as well as other planetary bodies, is available at the U.S. Geological Survey Gazetteer of Planetary Nomenclature.

Date Acquired: January 14, 2008, and October 6, 2008
Instrument: Narrow Angle Camera (NAC) of the Mercury Dual Imaging System (MDIS)
Scale: Mercury’s diameter is 4880 kilometers (3030 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.