Date acquired: April 14, 2012
Image Mission Elapsed Time (MET): 242883079
Image ID: 1646270
Instrument: Wide Angle Camera (WAC) of the Mercury Dual Imaging System (MDIS)
WAC filter: 7 (748 nanometers)
Center Latitude: 24.62°
Center Longitude: 357.7° E
Resolution: 172 meters/pixel
Scale: The largest crater in this image is approximately 120 km (75 mi.) in diameter.
Incidence Angle: 85.2°
Emission Angle: 42.1°
Phase Angle: 127.4°

Of Interest: The large, unnamed crater in this image shares part of its wall with the younger, smaller (42 km/26 mi) unnamed crater that formed inside of it. The floor and rim of the smaller crater contains many hollows, which are difficult to make out in this high-incidence-angle image.

The MESSENGER spacecraft is the first ever to orbit the planet Mercury, and the spacecraft's seven scientific instruments and radio science investigation are unraveling the history and evolution of the Solar System's innermost planet. Visit the Why Mercury? section of this website to learn more about the key science questions that the MESSENGER mission is addressing. During the one-year primary mission, MESSENGER acquired 88,746 images and extensive other data sets. MESSENGER is now in a yearlong extended mission, during which plans call for the acquisition of more than 80,000 additional images to support MESSENGER's science goals.

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

For information regarding the use of MESSENGER images, see the image use policy.