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Firdousi is a relatively fresh impact crater approximately 96 kilometers (60 miles) in diameter. Its abundant secondary craters dominate the surroundings, and many have haloes of high-reflectance, relatively blue ejecta.
Date acquired: August 14, 2011
Image Mission Elapsed Time (MET): 221844487, 221844483, 221844479
Image ID: 632390, 632389, 632388
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: 4.19°
Center Longitude: 65.30° E
Resolution: 204 meters/pixel
Scale: Firdousi is approximately 96 kilometers (60 miles) in diameter
Incidence Angle: 37.0°
Emission Angle: 14.6°
Phase Angle: 51.7°
Photo credit: NASA/Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory/Carnegie Institution of Washington
Two prominent basins, Chekhov at the upper left and Schubert at lower right, are both just under 200 km in diameter but have very different appearances. Chekhov has a prominent peak ring and its older age is reflected in the numerous craters that have battered its rim and floor. Schubert's floor is smooth with only a hint of its peak ring peeking through.
Date acquired: October 31, 2011
Image Mission Elapsed Time (MET): 228589200, 228589220, 228589204
Image ID: 956051, 956056, 956052
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: -37.80°
Center Longitude: 303.8° E
Resolution: 655 meters/pixel
Scale: Scene is approximately 700 km (435 miles) across
Incidence Angle: 71.1°
Emission Angle: 15.9°
Phase Angle: 86.8°
Photo credit: NASA/Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory/Carnegie Institution of Washington
A colorful view of a complex region is shown in this image. The high-reflectance and hollow-filled floor of de Graft crater is visible at center left, and a similar high-reflectance smaller crater is located to the northeast. Streaking across the scene from north to south are rays from Hokusai crater, located over 1,500 km away.
Date acquired: September 22, 2011
Image Mission Elapsed Time (MET): 225143097, 225143117, 225143101
Image ID: 790098, 790103, 790099
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: 24.00°
Center Longitude: 6.67° E
Resolution: 421 meters/pixel
Scale: De Graft crater is approximately 68 km (42 miles) in diameter
Incidence Angle: 26.8°
Emission Angle: 22.5°
Phase Angle: 39.3°
Photo credit: NASA/Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory/Carnegie Institution of Washington
This image shows a colorful view of Brontë (the large crater in the top right corner) and Degas (the blue-hued crater atop Brontë). These craters are located in Sobkou Planitia, a plains region formed through past volcanic activity.
Date acquired: December 12, 2011
Image Mission Elapsed Time (MET): 232160712, 232160708, 232160704
Image ID: 1125985, 1125984, 1125983
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: 36.44°
Center Longitude: 231.5° E
Resolution: 231 meters/pixel
Scale: Degas crater is 52 km (32 miles) in diameter
Incidence Angle: 59.7°
Emission Angle: 25.2°
Phase Angle: 85.0°
Photo credit: NASA/Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory/Carnegie Institution of Washington
For Valentine's Day, it seems appropriate to feature Shakespeare basin, named for the English poet and playwright and author of a famous collection of sonnets, some focusing on love. "Shall I compare thee" to other large basins on Mercury? If so, check out Rembrandt, Tolstoj, Rachmaninoff and Beethoven.
This mosaic was assembled from eight images that were acquired as part of MDIS's high-resolution surface morphology base map. The surface morphology base map will cover more than 90% of Mercury's surface with an average resolution of 250 meters/pixel (0.16 miles/pixel or 820 feet/pixel). Images acquired for the surface morphology base map typically have off-vertical Sun angles (i.e., high incidence angles) and visible shadows so as to reveal clearly the topographic form of geologic features.
Date acquired: April 26 - 28, 2011
Image Mission Elapsed Time (MET): 212372542, 212415875, 212416002, 212459333, 212459461, 212459565, 212502921, 212503025
Image ID: 181841, 183945, 183946, 185952, 185953, 185954, 188123, 188124
Instrument: Wide Angle Camera (WAC) of the Mercury Dual Imaging System (MDIS)
WAC filter: 7 (748 nanometers)
Center Latitude: 48.5°
Center Longitude: 208° E
Resolution: 240 meters/pixel
Scale: Shakespeare basin has a diameter of 400 km (250 miles)
Incidence Angle: 73°
Emission Angle: 0.6°
Phase Angle: 75°
Photo credit: NASA/Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory/Carnegie Institution of Washington
This high-resolution color image shows a 14-kilometer diameter crater that is relatively young, as indicated by the bright rays that cross the neighboring features. A dark "tongue" of impact melt, which has a bluer color than the nearby surface, appears to have flowed out of the crater.
Date acquired: May 16, 2011
Image Mission Elapsed Time (MET): 214069807, 214069811, 214069815
Image ID: 261719, 261720, 261721
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: -8.82°
Center Longitude: 254.9° E
Resolution: 294 meters/pixel
Scale: The center crater has a diameter of approximately 14 kilometers (9 miles)
Incidence Angle: 41.8°
Emission Angle: 25.6°
Phase Angle: 67.4°
Photo credit: NASA/Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory/Carnegie Institution of Washington
The bright rays of Xiao Zhao dominate this scene. These rays indicate that Xiao Zhao is a relatively young crater. Eastman crater can be seen to the southwest of Xiao Zhao. The eight different color filters of the WAC that are used to create the color base map have central wavelengths of 430, 480, 560, 630, 750, 830, 900, and 1000 nm. The images acquired through these narrow-band filters are combined to create color images that accentuate color differences on Mercury's surface. As an example, this image was created by using three images acquired as part of the color base map with the central wavelengths of 1000, 750, and 430 nm displayed in red, green, and blue, respectively. This particular combination allows the visualization of details, some of which would be invisible to the human eye.
Date acquired: December 29, 2011
Image Mission Elapsed Time (MET): 233687507, 233687511, 233687527
Image ID: 1199649, 1199650, 1199654
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: 9.6°
Center Longitude: 125.8° E
Resolution: 443 meters/pixel
Scale: The rayed crater Xiao Zhao is 24 km (15 mi.) in diameter.
Incidence Angle: 26.9°
Emission Angle: 14.1°
Phase Angle: 28.0°
Photo credit: NASA/Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory/Carnegie Institution of Washington
Today's offering shows two views of the crater Berkel. The image on the left is a monochrome image obtained when the Sun was lower on the horizon than when the color image on the right was collected. As a result, the left image emphasizes the topography of the surface (due to the presence of shadowing), whereas the image on the right is dominated by inherent differences in reflectance and color. The impact that formed Berkel excavated dark subsurface material and deposited it around the crater's rim. The presence of this low reflectance material causes the floor of the crater to appear black in the color image.
The image on the left is part of MDIS's high-resolution surface morphology base map. The surface morphology base map covers more than 90% of Mercury's surface with an average resolution of 250 meters/pixel (0.16 miles/pixel or 820 feet/pixel). Images acquired for the surface morphology base map typically have off-vertical Sun angles (i.e., high incidence angles) and visible shadows so as to reveal clearly the topographic form of geologic features.
The image on the right image is 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 covers 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. The false-color presentation here has images taken through the 750-nm, 560-nm and 480-nm filters as red-green-blue.
Scale: Berkel crater is about 22 km (14 mi.) in diameter
Location: Berkel is located at -13.75° latitude, 26.9° E longitude
Instrument: Mercury Dual Imaging System (MDIS)
Photo credit: NASA/Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory/Carnegie Institution of Washington
Shown here is the first MESSENGER image from 2012! Though this image was acquired on January 1, it wasn't downlinked from the spacecraft until this week. The spacecraft has two solid-state recorders, which enable data to be stored on the spacecraft, and the mission uses a system of priorities to determine which data are downlinked. Often images are sent back to Earth within a few days of being acquired but occasionally longer times between image acquisition and downlink occur.
The year 2011 was an historic one for the MESSENGER mission, and there is much to look forward to in 2012. In 2012, the mission will continue to return new data from the Solar System's innermost planet nearly every day, completing its one-year primary mission in March and beginning new scientific observation campaigns in a one-year extended mission.
This image was acquired as part of MDIS's campaign to monitor the south polar region of Mercury. By imaging the polar region every four MESSENGER orbits as illumination conditions change, features that were in shadow on earlier orbits can be discerned and any permanently shadowed areas can be identified after repeated imaging over one solar day. During MESSENGER's one-year mission, MDIS's WAC is used to monitor the south polar region for the first Mercury solar day (176 Earth days), and MDIS's NAC is used for imaging the south polar region during the second Mercury solar day.
Date acquired: January 1, 2012
Image Mission Elapsed Time (MET): 0233869628
Image ID: 1207852
Instrument: Narrow Angle Camera (NAC) of the Mercury Dual Imaging System (MDIS)
Center Latitude: -83.30°
Center Longitude: 41.44° E
Resolution: 298 meters/pixel
Scale: This image is approximately 300 kilometers (190 miles) across
Incidence Angle: 91.6°
Emission Angle: 8.7°
Phase Angle: 99.0°
Photo credit: NASA/Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory/Carnegie Institution of Washington
This beautiful, unnamed crater is found within the Caloris impact basin, and formed partially atop another crater of similar size to its northwest. On the right-hand side of the image you can see the crater's central peak; at the upper left, you can see where the crater wall intersects what is left of the older crater's central peak.
Date acquired: December 24, 2011
Image Mission Elapsed Time (MET): 233221689
Image ID: 1177142
Instrument: Narrow Angle Camera (NAC) of the Mercury Dual Imaging System (MDIS)
Center Latitude: 36.6°
Center Longitude: 166.4° E
Resolution: 29 meters/pixel
Scale: Scene is approximately 30 km (19 miles) across
Incidence Angle: 36.6°
Emission Angle: 33.1°
Phase Angle: 69.7°
Photo credit: NASA/Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory/Carnegie Institution of Washington
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