Date acquired: October 18, 2014
Image Mission Elapsed Time (MET): 55992080
Image ID: 7269929
Instrument: Narrow Angle Camera (NAC) of the Mercury Dual Imaging System (MDIS)
Center Latitude: 74.96°
Center Longitude: 109.3° E
Resolution: 14 meters/pixel
Scale: This image is about 10.3 km (6.4 mi.) across diagonally.
Incidence Angle: 85.1°
Emission Angle: 5.5°
Phase Angle: 85.1°

Of Interest: Today's image features a region of the northern volcanic plains just to the southeast of the crater Yoshikawa. A wrinkle ridge cuts diagonally across the image. The high spatial resolution of this image reveals a somewhat smoother texture on the wrinkle ridge than on the terrain to the southeast of it.

This image was acquired as part of the MDIS low-altitude imaging campaign. During MESSENGER's second extended mission, the spacecraft makes a progressively closer approach to Mercury's surface than at any previous point in the mission, enabling the acquisition of high-spatial-resolution data. For spacecraft altitudes below 350 kilometers, NAC images are acquired with pixel scales ranging from 20 meters to as little as 2 meters.

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. In the mission's more than three years of orbital operations, MESSENGER has acquired over 250,000 images and extensive other data sets. MESSENGER is capable of continuing orbital operations until early 2015.

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.