Date acquired: July 25, 2012
Image Mission Elapsed Time (MET): 251689770
Image ID: 2264711
Instrument: Narrow Angle Camera (NAC) of the Mercury Dual Imaging System (MDIS)
Center Latitude: 11.08°
Center Longitude: 114.2° E
Resolution: 35 meters/pixel
Scale: This scene is 39 km (24 mi) across.
Incidence Angle: 67.6°
Emission Angle: 23.9°
Phase Angle: 43.7°
Of Interest: This image, taken with the
Narrow Angle Camera (NAC), gives us a stunning close-up view of the floor of Eminescu crater. The high-reflectance patches surrounding the central peaks and scattered across the crater floor are
hollows, an unexpected landform found in MESSENGER high-resolution images. Hollows are shallow, irregular, bright depressions whose formation may involve loss of volatile material.
This image was acquired as a high-resolution targeted observation. Targeted observations are images of a small area on Mercury's surface at resolutions much higher than the 200-meter/pixel morphology base map. It is not possible to cover all of Mercury's surface at this high resolution, but typically several areas of high scientific interest are imaged in this mode each week.
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.