Jokai Crater

Acquiring high-incidence-angle images of Mercury's surface is a major mapping activity in MESSENGER's extended mission. The high-incidence campaign compliments the surface morphology base map of MESSENGER's primary mission, which was acquired under generally more moderate incidence angles. High incidence angles, achieved when the Sun is near the horizon, result in long shadows that accentuate the small-scale topography of geologic features. The high-incidence-angle base map is being acquired with an average resolution of 200 meters/pixel.

This image is part of the high-incidence campaign and shows part of Jokai crater, a 93 km (58 mi.) diameter complex crater named for the 19th century Hungarian novelist Mor Jokai. Two smaller craters overprint the rim of Jokai. Jokai itself overprinted a similarly-sized crater, and part of the remaining older crater's wall can be seen towards the left side of this image.

Date acquired: April 11, 2012
Image Mission Elapsed Time (MET): 242631251
Image ID: 1633957
Instrument: Wide Angle Camera (WAC) of the Mercury Dual Imaging System (MDIS)
WAC filter: 7 (748 nanometers)
Center Latitude: 71.3°
Center Longitude: 224.0° E
Resolution: 173 meters/pixel
Scale: The small, shadowed crater at the center of the image is approximately 14 km (8.7 mi.) in diameter.
Incidence Angle: 80.4°
Emission Angle: 11.2°
Phase Angle: 69.1°

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