Date acquired: April 10, 2011
Image Mission Elapsed Time (MET): 210937352
Image ID: 114309
Instrument: Wide Angle Camera (WAC) of the Mercury Dual Imaging System (MDIS)
WAC filter: 7 (748 nanometers)
Center Latitude: 19.80°
Center Longitude: 309.1° E
Resolution: 1040 meters/pixel
Scale: The crater Bek is 32 km in diameter (20 miles)
Incidence Angle: 28.0°
Emission Angle: 0.2°
Phase Angle: 28.0°
Of Interest: Pictured here are two named craters,
Bek (32 km in diameter) and
Lermontov (166 km in diameter). Bek's beautiful rays are indicative of its relative youth; Lermontov's floor is a suspected site of explosive volcanism, with irregular depressions and a distinct color signature.
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.