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Mercury's "Kuiper Crater"
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Caption NASA originale:"The Mariner 10 Television-Science Team has proposed the name "Kuiper" for this very conspicuous bright Crater (top center) on the rim of a larger older crater.
Prof. Gerard P. Kuiper, a pioneer in planetary astronomy and a member of the Mariner 10 TV team, died December 23, 1973, while the spacecraft was en route to Venus and Mercury. Mariner took this picture (FDS 27304) from about 88.450 Km (55.000 miles), some 2 1/2 hours before it passed Mercury on March 29, 1974. The bright-floored crater, 41 Km (25 miles) in diameter, is the center of a very large bright are which could be seen in pictures sent from Mariner 10 while Mercury was more than two million miles distant. The larger crater is 80 Km (50 miles) across".
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(Dettagli)
