Rude Impact Crater

This view from MESSENGER's Narrow Angle Camera shows the impact crater Rude under morning illumination. The crater has small remnant central peaks that are slightly off-center. A sizable impact crater formed on Rude's floor, possibly causing slumping of Rude's northern rim. Francois Rude was a French sculptor who lived from 1784-1855. His statue of "Mercury Fastening his Sandals" is in the Louvre.

This image was acquired as part of MDIS's high-resolution surface morphology base map. The surface morphology base map covers more than 99% of Mercury's surface with an average resolution of 200 meters/pixel. Images acquired for the surface morphology base map typically are obtained at off-vertical Sun angles (i.e., high incidence angles) and have visible shadows so as to reveal clearly the topographic form of geologic features.

Date acquired: March 04, 2012
Image Mission Elapsed Time (MET): 239375379
Image ID: 1474113
Instrument: Narrow Angle Camera (NAC) of the Mercury Dual Imaging System (MDIS)
Center Latitude: -33.50°
Center Longitude: 280.4° E
Resolution: 180 meters/pixel
Scale: Rude crater is about 67 km (42 mi.) in diameter
Incidence Angle: 81.8°
Emission Angle: 18.4°
Phase Angle: 100.3°

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