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Benoit Crater and Lange Basin (False Colors; credits: Dr Paolo C. Fienga - Lunexit Team)
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This NAC image, acquired during MESSENGER's 1st Mercury Fly-By, shows the Crater Benoit and the Lange Basin.
Benoit Craer has been so named in honor of Rigaud Benoit, a twentieth century Haitian painter (1911-1987), while the Lange Basin is in honor of the American photographer Dorothea Lange (1895-1965).
These particular Craters were proposed for names on the basis of some interesting features of each. Benoit is a small approx. 35-Km-diameter (about 22-mile-diameter) Crater, but its floor is quite unusual, with two mounds that have been suggested to be evidence of intrusive volcanic activity on Mercury.
The larger neighboring Lange Basin appears to have been flooded by lava, with only faint traces remaining of a now buried Inner Ring.
Date Acquired: January 14, 2008
Image Mission Elapsed Time (MET): 108828463
Instrument: Narrow Angle Camera (NAC) of the Mercury Dual Imaging System (MDIS)
Resolution: 500 meters/pixel (0,31 miles)
Scale: Lange Basin is approx. 180 Km (about 112 miles) in diameter
Spacecraft Altitude: about 19.700 Km (approx. 12.200 miles)
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