Mercury's Limb Near the Caloris Basin

This striking view is located near the rim of the large Caloris basin. The rim of Caloris is marked by hills and mountains, some of which can be seen in the distance in this image.

This image was acquired as part of MDIS's limb imaging campaign. Once per week, MDIS captures images of Mercury's limb, with an emphasis on imaging the southern hemisphere limb. These limb images provide information about Mercury's shape and complement measurements of topography made by the Mercury Laser Altimeter (MLA) of Mercury's northern hemisphere.

Date acquired: December 18, 2012
Image Mission Elapsed Time (MET): 264299214
Image ID: 3161641
Instrument: Narrow Angle Camera (NAC) of the Mercury Dual Imaging System (MDIS)
Center Latitude: 6°
Center Longitude: 149° E
Additional Location Information: The mountain on the horizon on the left side of the image is at roughly 13°, 152° E
Scale: The bottom of this image is about 210 kilometers (130 miles) across.

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