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A series of troughs extends diagonally (southwest-northeast) across this high-resolution image of the interior of the Caloris basin. The troughs are graben: structures that developed where horizontal forces pulled the crust apart, causing valleys to form as sections of rock dropped down between two inward-dipping faults. Pulling-apart ("extensional") deformation is much less common on Mercury than is compressional deformation. However, a large number of graben are found within Caloris. This network of graben, named Pantheon Fossae, is the subject of a blog essay recently posted on the website of The Planetary Society.
This image was acquired as a high-resolution targeted observation. Targeted observations are images of a small area on Mercury's surface at resolutions much higher than the 200-meter/pixel morphology base map. It is not possible to cover all of Mercury's surface at this high resolution, but typically several areas of high scientific interest are imaged in this mode each week.
Date acquired: January 19, 2012
Image Mission Elapsed Time (MET): 235472082
Image ID: 1285755
Instrument: Narrow Angle Camera (NAC) of the Mercury Dual Imaging System (MDIS)
Center Latitude: 27.3°
Center Longitude: 160.7° E
Resolution: 24 meters/pixel
Scale: The scene is about 43 km (27 mi.) across
Incidence Angle: 76.8°
Emission Angle: 54.9°
Phase Angle: 131.8°
North is up in this image.
Photo credit: NASA/Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory/Carnegie Institution of Washington
On August 3, 2004 the MESSENGER spacecraft blasted off into space from Florida's Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, entering orbit around the innermost planet some six and a half years later, on March 18, 2011.
Over the course of the mission, the MESSENGER team has been posting Featured Images at regular intervals. The first image was posted in August 2005 -- and today we've hit 1,000 Featured Images!
This mosaic celebrates the incredible range of images, maps, and other scientific data shared by the MESSENGER team in more than eight years of web postings, but of course contains just a small percentage of the total collection of images now available online. Although we can't list them all, see if you can spot some highlights like the MESSENGER stamp, Mercury's dark and mysterious north pole, the Caloris basin in full color, lava channels, Pantheon Fossae, images of Earth and Venus, and the Cookie Monster!
Image credit: NASA/Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory/Carnegie Institution of Washington
This image is a portion of the MDIS global mosaic basemap that was acquired during MESSENGER's first year in orbit. Caloris Basin, the largest young impact crater on Mercury, dominates the scene. With an east-west diameter of 1,640 km, Caloris hosts a wide variety of tectonic features, including graben, ridges, and Pantheon Fossae. MESSENGER team members are in the process of mapping the tectonic features within the Caloris basin and deciphering their complicated relationships.
MESSENGER scientists are interested in the tectonic features of Caloris as the basin shows widespread evidence of both extension and compression, an uncommon tectonic combination on Mercury. Since different processes produce extensional and contractional landforms, the Caloris basin has clearly had a complex and detailed geological history. Understanding how these structures developed will yield an insight into tectonism in Mercury's largest basin, and large impact craters in general.
Date Created: February 10, 2012
Instrument: Mercury Dual Imaging System (MDIS)
Latitude Range: 12° N to 52° N
Longitude Range: 139° E to 187° E
Resolution: 1720 meters/pixel
Scale: The large crater at center right (Atget crater) is 100 km (63 mi.) in diameter
Projection: Azimuthal equidistant
Photo credit: NASA/Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory/Carnegie Institution of Washington
The large Caloris basin hosts a wide variety of tectonic features, including graben, ridges, and Pantheon Fossae. MESSENGER team members are in the process of mapping the tectonic features within the Caloris basin and deciphering their complicated relationships. The tectonic map shown here was published in the abstracts of the 43rd Lunar and Planetary Science Conference, which is being held this week in The Woodlands, Texas. In total, MESSENGER team members are presenting 57 papers at this conference.
Center Latitude: 31°
Center Longitude: 163° E
Scale: Caloris basin has a diameter of 1,550 kilometers (960 miles)
Reference: From abstract #1722 by Paul K. Byrne and coauthors at the 43rd Lunar and Planetary Science Conference
Map credit: Byrne et al. (2012). A tectonic survey of the Caloris basin, Mercury. 43rd Lunar and Planetary Science Conference, The Woodlands, Texas, abstract #1722.
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