Blue Mercury

The upper part of this view of Mercury's surface includes a swath of material that has reflectance that does not strongly increase toward longer wavelengths, a property described as relatively "blue" in color. The bluish material also has lower overall reflectance than Mercury's average surface. The terrain to the south and west has a more reddish color. A major puzzle of Mercury's geology is the identity of the particular rock types that correspond to these colors. Visible in the scene are the craters Amaral, Neruda and Sher-Gil.

Date acquired: July 05, 2011
Image Mission Elapsed Time (MET): 218360003
Image ID: 466480, 466483, 466481
Instrument: Wide Angle Camera (WAC) of the Mercury Dual Imaging System (MDIS)
WAC filter: 996-nm, 558-nm, 433-nm as red-green-blue.
Center Latitude: -51.62°
Center Longitude: 131.1° E
Resolution: 2471 meters/pixel
Scale: The edges of the image are about 2750 km (1700 mi.) long.
Incidence Angle: 55.3°
Emission Angle: 0.9°
Phase Angle: 55.5°

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

Amaral Crater

Named in 2008 for the Brazilian painter Tarsila do Amaral, Amaral crater was imaged during MESSENGER's first Mercury flyby and discovered to contain bright central peaks that were relatively blue in color compared to the surrounding terrain. The peaks resembled those of Eminescu in color, now known to be the location of an impressive collection of hollows. This spectacular image of Amaral highlights the topography of the peaks inside the crater but doesn't show wide-spread hollows as seen within Eminescu, though there may be a hint that perhaps the bright tips of Amaral's peaks do host hollows.

Date acquired: February 04, 2012
Image Mission Elapsed Time (MET): 236873588
Image ID: 1353328
Instrument: Narrow Angle Camera (NAC) of the Mercury Dual Imaging System (MDIS)
Center Latitude: -26.44.°
Center Longitude: 118.2.° E
Resolution: 80 meters/pixel
Scale: Amaral has a diameter of 109 kilometers (68 miles)
Orientation: North is to the left
Incidence Angle: 85°
Emission Angle: 56°
Phase Angle: 29°

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

Rembrandt Basin

The large Rembrandt basin is evident on the left side of this image, and, in contrast to the relatively darker material surrounding Rembrandt, Amaral crater and its bright rays can be seen on the right. Rembrandt basin is an area of particular scientific interest due to its large size, young age, and extensional and contractional characteristics. In fact, Rembrandt was highlighted in a publication of Science magazine in 2009 and featured on the cover.

This image was acquired as part of MDIS's color base map. The color base map is composed of WAC images taken through eight different narrow-band color filters and will cover more than 90% of Mercury's surface with an average resolution of 1 kilometer/pixel (0.6 miles/pixel). The highest-quality color images are obtained for Mercury's surface when both the spacecraft and the Sun are overhead, so these images typically are taken with viewing conditions of low incidence and emission angles.

Date acquired: July 11, 2011
Image Mission Elapsed Time (MET): 218833662, 218833682, 218833666
Image ID: 489008 , 489013, 489009
Instrument: Wide Angle Camera (WAC) of the Mercury Dual Imaging System (MDIS)
WAC filter: 9 (1000 nanometers), 7 (750 nanometers), 6 (433 nanometers) as red-green-blue
Center Latitude: -34.67°
Center Longitude: 100.4° E
Resolution: 1853 meters/pixel
Scale: Rembrandt basin has a diameter of 716 kilometers (445 miles).
Incidence Angle: 50.5°
Emission Angle: 0.4°
Phase Angle: 50.5°

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