Red Spot Volcanic Crater

At the center of today's image is a "red spot," an informal designation used by the MESSENGER team to refer to an area with overall high reflectance and higher than average reflectance at the longer-wavelength (red) end of the spectrum. Red spots are thought to be sites of explosive (pyroclastic) volcanic eruptions. Such deposits were analyzed in a 2011 paper. A close-up of the crater at the center of the red spot was presented in a previous Gallery image. The crater neat the left edge of the image with bright floor deposits (hollows) is Theophanes.

Date acquired: December 14, 2011
Image Mission Elapsed Time (MET): 232328601, 232328621, 232328605
Image ID: 1134128, 1134133, 1134129
Instrument: Wide Angle Camera (WAC) of the Mercury Dual Imaging System (MDIS)
WAC filters: 9, 7, 6 (996, 748, 433 nanometers) in red, green, and blue
Center Latitude: -3.73°
Center Longitude: 223.8° E
Resolution: 725 meters/pixel
Scale: The scene is about 750 km (465 mi.) wide.
Incidence Angle: 44.7°
Emission Angle: 0.3°
Phase Angle: 44.8°

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