Tuesday, March 20, 2012

Deep Impact


Although Mercury is replete with impact craters, it can be difficult to gauge their size in a meaningful way. This oblique image shows an unnamed crater that lies within the Rachmaninoff basin. It is a simple crater, characterized by its bowl-like shape, and lacks the central peak or peak ring of larger, complex craters. The famous Meteor Crater in Arizona, though also a simple crater, is five times smaller in diameter! (North is towards the upper left corner of the image.)

Date acquired: February 09, 2012
Image Mission Elapsed Time (MET): 237254445
Image ID: 1371698
Instrument: Narrow Angle Camera (NAC) of the Mercury Dual Imaging System (MDIS)
Center Latitude: 27.52°
Center Longitude: 54.40° E
Resolution: 30 meters/pixel
Scale: The crater in the center of the image is 7 km (4.4 miles) in diameter
Incidence Angle: 41.3°
Emission Angle: 40.1°
Phase Angle: 28.1°

Photo credit: NASA/Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory/Carnegie Institution of Washington

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