Detail From The New Three-Color Mosaic

A new color mosaic created from MESSENGER images is now available! This mosaic was part of a release on March 7, 2014 by NASA's Planetary Data System (PDS). A portion of the new color mosaic is shown here; can you find the craters Debussy, Derain, Berkel, and Warhol in this view? Explore the full 3-color mosaic (and confirm the locations of these craters) in QuickMap.

The images for MDIS's high-resolution 3-color mosaic were acquired during MESSENGER's second year in orbit about Mercury. The 3-color mosaic was designed to complement the 8-color base map acquired during MESSENGER's primary mission. By imaging Mercury's surface in a subset of the color filters at the highest resolution possible, the 3-color mosaic is available at 332 meters/pixel,as compared to 665 meters/pixel for the 8-color mosaic.

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: -14.9°
Center Longitude: 10.3° E
Resolution: 332 meters/pixel
Scale: Derain has a diameter of 167 km (104 miles)
Projection: simple cylindrical

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

New Quadrangle Maps of Mercury

A new set of Mercury maps are available on the USGS website. These maps utilize the current best MESSENGER mosaic of Mercury, which covers 100% of the surface. Mercury's surface is divided into 15 different quadrangles. The H-10 quadrangle, which is named for the crater Derain, is shown here at half the available resolution. For the full resolution map of this region, and all of Mercury's surface, visit the USGS website.

Map Quadrangles: H-10 Derain
Center Latitude: 0°
Center Longitude: 36° E (324° W)
Scale: Derain has a diameter of 167 km (104 miles)
USGS Maps of Mercury website: http://planetarynames.wr.usgs.gov/Page/mercuryQuadMap

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

Derain Crater

This image, taken with the Wide Angle Camera (WAC), gives us a close-up look at Derain crater. Named for the twentieth century French artist André Derain, this crater was first viewed during MESSENGER's second flyby. Its unique dark collar is made up of low-reflectance material (LRM) exposed during the impact that formed the crater; this material is some of the darkest identified on Mercury and may have a mineralogical composition that is different from the surrounding terrain.

Date acquired: February 10, 2012
Image Mission Elapsed Time (MET): 237382607
Image ID: 1377852
Instrument: Wide Angle Camera (WAC) of the Mercury Dual Imaging System (MDIS)
WAC filter: 5 (628 nanometers)
Center Latitude: -8.97°
Center Longitude: 19.19° E
Resolution: 501 meters/pixel
Scale: Derain crater is 190 km (118 miles) in diameter
Incidence Angle: 8.9°
Emission Angle: 51.4°
Phase Angle: 55.1°

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