Blue Mercury

The upper part of this view of Mercury's surface includes a swath of material that has reflectance that does not strongly increase toward longer wavelengths, a property described as relatively "blue" in color. The bluish material also has lower overall reflectance than Mercury's average surface. The terrain to the south and west has a more reddish color. A major puzzle of Mercury's geology is the identity of the particular rock types that correspond to these colors. Visible in the scene are the craters Amaral, Neruda and Sher-Gil.

Date acquired: July 05, 2011
Image Mission Elapsed Time (MET): 218360003
Image ID: 466480, 466483, 466481
Instrument: Wide Angle Camera (WAC) of the Mercury Dual Imaging System (MDIS)
WAC filter: 996-nm, 558-nm, 433-nm as red-green-blue.
Center Latitude: -51.62°
Center Longitude: 131.1° E
Resolution: 2471 meters/pixel
Scale: The edges of the image are about 2750 km (1700 mi.) long.
Incidence Angle: 55.3°
Emission Angle: 0.9°
Phase Angle: 55.5°

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