 Click on image to enlarge. | Flooded FirdousiRelease Date: October 9, 2012 Topics: Firdousi, Impact Melt, Volcanism |
Date acquired: August 27, 2012
Image Mission Elapsed Time (MET): 254595873
Image ID: 2471459
Instrument: Narrow Angle Camera (NAC) of the Mercury Dual Imaging System (MDIS)
Center Latitude: 3.83°
Center Longitude: 65.23° E
Resolution: 66 meters/pixel
Scale: The horizontal field of view in this image is approx. 80 km (50 mi.) across
Incidence Angle: 64.6°
Emission Angle: 29.2°
Phase Angle: 93.8°
Of Interest: Firdousi crater, located close to Mercury's equator, is a flat-floored crater that may have been filled with volcanic material subsequent to its formation. Although many craters on Mercury are filled with impact melt, the shallow depth of Firdousi suggests that lava is the culprit, almost entirely obscuring its central peak and covering many of the landslide deposits around the crater's inner wall. Firdousi is also surrounded by prominent secondary crater chains, many of which have haloes of high-reflectance, relatively blue ejecta.
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.
Image Mission Elapsed Time (MET): 254595873
Image ID: 2471459
Instrument: Narrow Angle Camera (NAC) of the Mercury Dual Imaging System (MDIS)
Center Latitude: 3.83°
Center Longitude: 65.23° E
Resolution: 66 meters/pixel
Scale: The horizontal field of view in this image is approx. 80 km (50 mi.) across
Incidence Angle: 64.6°
Emission Angle: 29.2°
Phase Angle: 93.8°
Of Interest: Firdousi crater, located close to Mercury's equator, is a flat-floored crater that may have been filled with volcanic material subsequent to its formation. Although many craters on Mercury are filled with impact melt, the shallow depth of Firdousi suggests that lava is the culprit, almost entirely obscuring its central peak and covering many of the landslide deposits around the crater's inner wall. Firdousi is also surrounded by prominent secondary crater chains, many of which have haloes of high-reflectance, relatively blue ejecta.
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.