Date Acquired: January 14, 2008
Image Mission Elapsed Time (MET): 108826682
Instrument: Narrow Angle Camera (NAC) of the Mercury Dual Imaging System (MDIS)
Resolution: 240 meters/pixel (0.15 miles/pixel)
Scale: Nawahi crater has a diameter of 34 kilometers (21 miles)
Spacecraft Altitude: 9,400 kilometers (5,800 miles)
Of Interest: The crater surrounded by dark material located just below and to the left of the center of this NAC image is the
newly named crater Nawahi. The crater is named in honor of Joseph Kaho'oluhi Nawahiokalaniopuu, the 19
th century native Hawaiian painter. Nawahi crater is located within the large
Caloris impact basin, and the hills and rugged terrain to the left of Nawahi in this image are part of the basin rim. The unusual dark material creating a halo around Nawahi makes this crater of special interest, as the dark material likely represents rocks with a different chemical and mineralogical composition than those of the neighboring surface. A portion of the newly named crater Munch is also visible on the upper right edge of this image. Munch is also rimmed by dark material. Other craters that expose dark materials include
Atget,
Neruda, and the newly named
Poe.
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.