Date acquired: April 18, 2011
Image Mission Elapsed Time (MET): 211589984
Image ID: 145163
Instrument: Wide Angle Camera (WAC) of the Mercury Dual Imaging System (MDIS)
WAC filter: 7 (748 nanometers)
Center Latitude: 38.39°
Center Longitude: 266.0° E
Resolution: 320 meters/pixel
Scale: Al-Hamadhani is 168 km across
Incidence Angle: 53.7°
Emission Angle: 0.2°
Phase Angle: 53.7°

Of Interest: The crater with the "smile" (the large crater toward the top of the image) is Al-Hamadhani, named in 1979 for the tenth century Iranian author Badi' al-Zaman al-Hamadhani. This crater was first imaged by Mariner 10, but MESSENGER's Wide Angle Camera (WAC) now offers us another view.

This image was 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.

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.