Heine Crater

Heine, detailed here, exhibits Low Reflectance Material (LRM) and high reflectance rays to the west of the crater. The LRM (darker area to the bottom) is likely darker, older material found in some southern areas on Mercury. The bright rays emanate from Degas, located approximately 150 km to the north. Heinrich Heine (1797-1856) is considered one of the most significant German poets of the 19th century. One of Heine's best known poems is "Die Lorelei."

This image was acquired as part of MDIS's high-resolution 3-color imaging campaign. The map produced from this campaign complements the 8-color base map (at an average resolution of 1 km/pixel) acquired during MESSENGER's primary mission by imaging Mercury's surface in a subset of the color filters at the highest resolution possible. The three narrow-band color filters are centered at wavelengths of 430 nm, 750 nm, and 1000 nm, and image resolutions generally range from 100 to 400 meters/pixel in the northern hemisphere.

Date acquired: May 06, 2012
Image Mission Elapsed Time (MET): 244776305, 244776297, 244776301
Image ID: 1773153, 1773151, 1773152
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: 32.28°
Center Longitude: 234.5° E
Resolution: 111 meters/pixel
Scale: The diameter of Heine is about 70 km (43 mi.) in diameter.
Incidence Angle: 43.0°
Emission Angle: 0.2°
Phase Angle: 43.1°

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