 Click on image to enlarge. | Old FriendsRelease Date: April 11, 2011 Topics: Crater Rays, Craters with Dark Material, Kuiper, Mercury Flyby 2, |
Date acquired: April 10, 2011
Image Mission Elapsed Time (MET): 210890915
Image ID: 112208
Instrument: Wide Angle Camera (WAC) of the Mercury Dual Imaging System (MDIS)
WAC filter: 9 (996 nanometers)
Center Latitude: -11.58°
Center Longitude: 312.7° E
Resolution: 1239 meters/pixel
Scale:The crater Calvino is 67 km in diameter (42 miles)
Incidence Angle: 21.4°
Emission Angle: 6.5°
Phase Angle: 28.0°
Of Interest: First seen in Mariner 10 images, and again during MESSENGER's second flyby of Mercury, the bright-rayed crater Kuiper (62 km in diameter) provides an important stratigraphic marker in Mercury's history. The craters Calvino (67 km) and Rudaki (123 km), imaged at some of the highest resolution color obtained prior to orbit, are seen at the bottom left (northeast is up).
This image was acquired as 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 will cover 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 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, MDIS is scheduled to acquire more than 75,000 images in support of MESSENGER's science goals.
Image Mission Elapsed Time (MET): 210890915
Image ID: 112208
Instrument: Wide Angle Camera (WAC) of the Mercury Dual Imaging System (MDIS)
WAC filter: 9 (996 nanometers)
Center Latitude: -11.58°
Center Longitude: 312.7° E
Resolution: 1239 meters/pixel
Scale:The crater Calvino is 67 km in diameter (42 miles)
Incidence Angle: 21.4°
Emission Angle: 6.5°
Phase Angle: 28.0°
Of Interest: First seen in Mariner 10 images, and again during MESSENGER's second flyby of Mercury, the bright-rayed crater Kuiper (62 km in diameter) provides an important stratigraphic marker in Mercury's history. The craters Calvino (67 km) and Rudaki (123 km), imaged at some of the highest resolution color obtained prior to orbit, are seen at the bottom left (northeast is up).
This image was acquired as 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 will cover 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 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, MDIS is scheduled to acquire more than 75,000 images in support of 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.