This image shows two of the most prominent rayed craters on the surface of Mercury. In the top center is Kuiper, named for Dutch-American planetary astronomer and Mariner 10 team member Gerard Kuiper (1905-1973). At the right edge is the 80-km diameter crater named for French composer Claude Debussy (1862-1918). The impacts that formed these craters ejected target materials for great distances across the planet's surface, and the image shows areas where the two sets of rays intersect. Another group of rays, entering the image from the top right, were deposited by the impact that formed Hokusai crater, far to the north. Hokusai was a Japanese artist who lived from 1760-1849.
Date acquired: October 06, 2008
Image Mission Elapsed Time (MET): 131772995
Image ID: 6793
Instrument: Wide Angle Camera (WAC) of the Mercury Dual Imaging System (MDIS)
WAC filter: 7 (748 nanometers)
Center Latitude: -31.41°
Center Longitude: 326.4° E
Resolution: 2800 meters/pixel
Scale: The distance between Kuiper and Debussy is about 1940 km (1200 miles)
Photo credit: NASA/Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory/Carnegie Institution of Washington
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment