Date acquired: April 05, 2011
Image Mission Elapsed Time (MET): 210460149
Image ID: 91786
Instrument: Narrow Angle Camera (NAC) of the Mercury Dual Imaging System (MDIS)
Center Latitude: 10.6°
Center Longitude: 338.1° E
Resolution: 60 meters/pixel
Scale: The image is about 60 km (37 mi.) wide.

Of Interest: This oblique-view image was obtained as a special targeted observation of the large crater Asvaghosa. This crater, 90 km (56 mi.) in diameter, has bright central peaks. Their high reflectance appears to have been enhanced by the crater ray that crosses the area, having originated either at Kuiper to the southwest, or Hokusai to the northeast.

This image was acquired as a high-resolution targeted observation. Targeted observations are images of small areas on Mercury's surface at resolutions much higher than the 250-meter/pixel (820 feet/pixel) morphology base map or the 1-kilometer/pixel (0.6 miles/pixel) color base map. It is not possible to cover all of Mercury's surface at this high resolution during MESSENGER's one-year mission, but several areas of high scientific interest are generally 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, 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.