Friday, May 9, 2014

High Resolution of Impact Craters


This image is one of the highest-resolution MDIS observations to date! Many craters of varying degradation states are visible, as well as gentle terrain undulations. Very short exposure times are needed to make these low-altitude observations while the spacecraft is moving quickly over the surface; thus the images are slightly noisier than typical MDIS images.

This image was acquired as a high-resolution targeted observation. Targeted observations are images of a small area on Mercury's surface at resolutions much higher than the 200-meter/pixel morphology base map. It is not possible to cover all of Mercury's surface at this high resolution, but typically several areas of high scientific interest are imaged in this mode each week.

Date acquired: March 15, 2014
Image Mission Elapsed Time (MET): 37173522
Image ID: 5936740
Instrument: Narrow Angle Camera (NAC) of the Mercury Dual Imaging System (MDIS)
Center Latitude: 71.91°
Center Longitude: 232.7° E
Resolution: 5 meters/pixel
Scale: The image is approximately 8.3 km (5.2 mi.) across.
Incidence Angle: 79.4°
Emission Angle: 4.0°
Phase Angle: 83.4°

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

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