Fresh Impact Crater and Rays from Hokusai Crater

At the left edge of this color view is a relatively fresh crater, featured previously in this oblique view. Chains of secondary craters can be seen emanating from the crater, but its bright rays have already nearly faded into the background. Bright, relatively blue rays do cross the scene from northwest to southeast, but these are the famous rays of Hokusai crater, located over 1000 km away.

This image was acquired as a high-resolution targeted color observation. Targeted color observations are images of a small area on Mercury's surface at resolutions higher than the 1-kilometer/pixel 8-color base map. During MESSENGER's one-year primary mission, hundreds of targeted color observations were obtained. During MESSENGER's extended mission, high-resolution targeted color observations are more rare, as the 3-color base map covered Mercury's northern hemisphere with the highest-resolution color images that are possible.

Date acquired: July 05, 2014
Image Mission Elapsed Time (MET): 46889179, 46889199, 46889183
Image ID: 6626955, 6626960, 6626956
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: 34.02°
Center Longitude: 39.36° E
Resolution: 223 meters/pixel
Scale: This scene is approximately 260 km (160 miles) across
Incidence Angle: 35.5°
Emission Angle: 45.6°
Phase Angle: 78.2°

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