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ZZ-Mercury-Craters-Raditladi_Impact_Basin-PIA12042_fig1.jpgRaditladi Basin54 visiteRaditladi Basin, imaged during MESSENGER's first Mercury flyby and named in April 2008 (PIA10611), is intriguing for several reasons. Shown extending across the top of this high-resolution NAC image, Raditladi Basin is relatively young, with only a few small impact craters on its floor and with well-preserved walls and peak-ring structure.
Visible on the floor of Raditladi are concentric troughs (blue arrows), formed by extension (pulling apart) of the surface. However, extensional troughs on Mercury are quite rare, having been seen to date only in two other locations on the Planet: as part of Pantheon Fossae and other troughs in Caloris Basin and on the floor of Rembrandt, the large basin discovered during MESSENGER's second Mercury flyby (see PIA11769).
Understanding how these troughs formed in the young Raditladi Basin could provide an important indicator of processes that acted relatively recently in Mercury’s geologic history.
Raditladi Basin was the topic of one of 25 presentations made by MESSENGER team members at the 40th Lunar and Planetary Science Conference held last week (April 2009).
Date Acquired: January 14, 2008
Image Mission Elapsed Time (MET): 108826792
Instrument: Narrow Angle Camera (NAC) of the Mercury Dual Imaging System (MDIS)
Resolution: 250 meters/pixel (0,16 miles/pixel)
Scale: Raditladi basin has a diameter of approx. 257 Km (about 160 miles)
Spacecraft Altitude: approx. 10.000 Km (about 6200 miles)MareKromium
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ZZ-Mercury-Craters-Raditladi_Impact_Basin-PIA14856-PCF-LXTT.jpgFeatures of Raditladi Impact Basin (Enhanced Absolute Natural Colors; credits for the additional process. and color.: Dr Paolo C. Fienga - Lunexit Team)212 visiteCaption NASA:"View of a section of the Floor and Peak-Ring Mountains of the Raditladi Impact Basin. The individual frames in the mosaic are about 20 km wide. The rounded, depressions, called "Hollows" are a fascinating discovery of MESSENGER's orbital mission and may have been formed by Sublimation of a component of the material when exposed by the Raditladi Impact Event.
Date Presented: September 29, 2011, at a NASA press briefing
Instrument: Mercury Dual Imaging System (MDIS)MareKromium
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ZZ-Mercury-Craters-Raffaello_Crater-PIA16307-PCF-LXTT-IPF-1.jpgRaffaello Crater (Absolute Natural Colors; credits for the additional process. and color.: Dr Paolo C. Fienga/Lunar Explorer Italia/Italian Planetary Foundation)83 visiteThis beautiful Absolute Natural Color image-mosaic of the huge Impact Basin Raffaello (named after the Italian Renaissance painter and having a diameter of approx. 343 Km), taken in the past month of October 2012 by the NASA - MESSENGER Spacecraft, shows us a wide diversity of colors (which, as you know, represent a wide variety of Mineral Compositions) that exist and can be easily identified within the Volcanic Plains that, eons ago, flooded the Raffaello Basin's Floor. Furthermore, many white-colored Hollows appear to be in process of being formed along most of the Rim and the Northern portion of the Floor - and, in both cases, they are forming in the so-called Low Reflectance Material (or LRM for short) - of a smaller - roughly 40-Kilometer (such as approx. 25-miles) diameter -, Unnamed and Highly Complex Impact Crater that is located just South of the center of the giant Raffaello Basin.
Date acquired: October, 19th, 2012
Images Mission Elapsed Time (MET): 259122560, 259122580, 259122564
Images ID: 2793045, 2793050, 2793046
Instrument: Wide Angle Camera (WAC) of the Mercury Dual Imaging System (MDIS)
Center Latitude: 20,39° South
Center Longitude: 283,6° East
Resolution: 599 meters/pixel
Solar Incidence Angle: 53,4° (meaning that the Sun, at the time that the pictures were taken, was about 36,6° above the imaged Local Mercurian Horizon)
Emission Angle: 27,0°
Sun-Mercury-Messenger (or "Phase") Angle: 80,3°
This picture (which is an Original NASA - MESSENGER Spacecraft color frame published on the NASA - Planetary Photojournal with the ID n. PIA 16307) has been additionally processed and then re-colorized in Absolute Natural Colors (such as the colors that a human eye would actually perceive if someone were onboard the NASA - MESSENGER Spacecraft and then looked down, towards the Surface of Mercury), by using an original technique created - and, in time, dramatically improved - by the Lunar Explorer Italia Team. Different colors, as well as different shades of the same color, mean, among other things, the existence of different Elements (Minerals) present on the Surface of Mercury, each having a different Albedo (---> Reflectivity) and Chemical Composition.MareKromium
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ZZ-Mercury-Craters-Rembrandt_Crater-PIA12395.jpgLow Sun over Rembrandt Crater (possible Natural Colors; credits: Dr Paolo C. Fienga - Lunexit Team)54 visiteThis NAC image acquired during MESSENGER's third Fly-By of Mercury shows a view of the interior of Rembrandt Basin that emphasizes landforms. Rembrandt was discovered during the Mission's second Fly-By, in October 2008. Its large size (approx. 715 Km, or about 444 miles, in diameter), its relatively young age (as implied by the low number of superposed impact craters), and the radiating extensional and contractional fractures on its Floor, have made it a topic of special interest to the MESSENGER Science Team.
Earlier this year, an article devoted to the first study of the geology of Rembrandt was published in the Science magazine. During Mercury's Fly-By 3, Rembrandt was closer to the Terminator - such as the line between the sunlit dayside and dark nightside of the Planet - and the different viewing geometries between Fly-Bys 2 and 3 enabled a three-dimensional view of this unusual basin. The grazing angle of the light from the setting Sun in this particular NAC image accentuates the topography of the features on the Rembrandt's Floor, including the set of unusual Radiating Fractures.
Date Acquired: September 29, 2009
Image Mission Elapsed Time (MET): 162744327
Instrument: Narrow Angle Camera (NAC) of the Mercury Dual Imaging System (MDIS)
Resolution: 390 meters/pixel (0,24 miles/pixel)
Scale: The prominent crater at center left is about 44 Km (approx. 27 miles) in diameter
Spacecraft Altitude (distance from target): approx. 15.100 Km (about 9400 miles)
MareKromium
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ZZ-Mercury-Craters-Rembrandt_Crater-PIA14497-PCF-LXTT.jpgRembrandt Crater (Absolute Natural Colors; credits for the additional process. and color.: Dr Paolo C. Fienga - Lunexit Team)123 visiteDate acquired: July, 11th, 2011
Image Mission Elapsed Time (MET): 218833662, 218833682, 218833666
Image ID: 489008 , 489013, 489009
Instrument: Wide Angle Camera (WAC) of the Mercury Dual Imaging System (MDIS)
WAC filter: 9 (1000 nanometers), 7 (750 nanometers), 6 (433 nanometers) as red-green-blue
Center Latitude: 34,67° South
Center Longitude: 100,4° East
Resolution: 1853 meters/pixel
Scale: Rembrandt Basin has a diameter of about 716 Km (approx. 445 miles)
Solar Incidence Angle: 50,5°
Emission Angle: 0,4°
Phase Angle: 50,5°MareKromium
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ZZ-Mercury-Craters-Rembrandt_Crater-PIA14549-PCF-LXTT.jpgRembrandt Crater (Absolute Natural Colors; credits for the additional process. and color: Dr Paolo C. Fienga - Lunexit Team)138 visiteDate acquired: August, 07, 2011
Image Mission Elapsed Time (MET): 221198580
Image ID: 601688
Instrument: Wide Angle Camera (WAC) of the Mercury Dual Imaging System (MDIS)
WAC filter: 7 (748 nanometers)
Center Latitude: 32,95° South
Center Longitude: 84,90° East
Resolution: 1756 meters/pixel
Scale: Rembrandt Crater is ~715 Km (444,015 miles) in diameter.
Solar Incidence Angle: 46,3°
Emission Angle: 48,7°
Sun-Mercury-Spacecraft (or "Phase") Angle: 95,0°MareKromium
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ZZ-Mercury-Craters-Rustaveli_Crater-PIA16359-PCF-LXTT-IPF.jpgRustaveli Crater (Absolute Natural Colors; credits for the additional process. and color.: Dr Paolo C. Fienga/Lunar Explorer Italia/Italian Planetary Foundation)78 visiteThis Absolute Natural Color Image-Mosaic shows the Rustaveli Crater, a newly named Impact Basin located in the Northern Hemisphere of Mercury. The Basin has a smooth, filled Floor with little weathering and a Peak-ring Structure. Shota Rustaveli was a Georgian poet who lived from 1172-1216. He is well known for writing the Georgian National Epic Poem, "The Knight in the Panther's Skin". He is also the namesake of the coveted Shota Rustaveli State Prize, the highest honor a Georgian artist or writer can achieve.
Date acquired: July 18, 2011
Image Mission Elapsed Time (MET): 219478808, 219478804, 219478800
Image ID: 519956, 519955, 519954
Instrument: Wide Angle Camera (WAC) of the Mercury Dual Imaging System (MDIS)
WAC filters: 9, 7, 6 (996, 748, 433 nanometers) in red, green, and blue
Center Latitude: 52,40° North
Center Longitude: 81,79° East
Resolution: 187 meters/pixel
Scale: the diameter of Rustaveli basin is roughly 180 Km (such as approx. 112 miles).
Solar Incidence Angle: 59,8° (meaning that the Sun was about 30,2° above the imaged Local Horizon at the time that the picturs were taken)
Emission Angle: 30,6°
Sun-Mercury-MESSENGER (or "Phase") Angle: 90,4°MareKromium
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ZZ-Mercury-Craters-Scarlatti_Crater-PIA18215-PCF-LXTT-IPF.jpgScarlatti Crater (Absolute Natural Colors; credits for the additional process. and color.: Dr Paolo C. Fienga/Lunar Explorer Italia/Italian Planetary Foundation)108 visiteIn this image-mosaic, obtained by putting together three frames taken by the NASA - MESSENGER Spacecraft on March, 30, 2014, we can see, located almost at the center of the frame, the large (such as approx. 132 Km - such as about 81,97 miles - in diameter) Peak-Ring Basin known as Scarlatti.
While Scarlatti has a typical Peak-Ring in many respects, if you take a good look towards its North/Eastern Section (upper right side - Dx - of the Feature), you will be able to notice its "transition" to a relatively wide (in this case, approx. 30 Km - such as about 18,63 miles - across) sort of Collapse Pit, surrounded by High-Reflectance (white and reddish in color) Surface Material. This Pit (perhaps a Volcanic Vent or a Caldera, eons ago), according to several NASA Planetary Scientists, could have been - and we say, as IPF, reasonably, considering all the visible Features characterizing it - the site of some (most likely extremely ancient as well as really powerful) Explosive Volcanic Activity.
Date acquired: March, 30th, 2014
Images Mission Elapsed Time (MET): 38528557, 38528553, 38528551
Images ID: 6032934, 6032932, 6032931
Instrument: Wide Angle Camera (WAC) of the Mercury Dual Imaging System (MDIS)
Center Latitude: 40,70° North
Center Longitude: 258,90° East
Solar Incidence Angle: 86,2° (meaning that the Sun, at the time that the picture was taken, was about 3,8° above the imaged Local Mercurian Horizon)
Emission Angle: 51,1°
Sun-Mercury-Messenger (or "Phase") Angle: 137,3°
This picture (which is an Original NASA - MESSENGER Spacecraft's false colors and NON-Map-Projected image-mosaic published on the NASA - Planetary Photojournal with the ID n. PIA 18215) has been additionally processed, contrast enhanced, Gamma corrected, magnified to aid the visibility of the details and then re-colorized in Absolute Natural Colors (such as the colors that a human eye would actually perceive if someone were onboard the NASA - MESSENGER Spacecraft and then looked outside, towards the Surface of Mercury), by using an original technique created - and, in time, dramatically improved - by the Lunar Explorer Italia Team. Different colors, as well as different shades of the same color, mean, among other things, the existence of different Elements (Minerals) present on the Surface of Mercury, each having a different Albedo (---> Reflectivity) and Chemical Composition.MareKromium
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ZZ-Mercury-Craters-Snorri_Crater-PIA16993-PCF-LXTT-IPF.jpgSnorri Crater (Absolute Natural Colors; credits for the additional process. and color.: Dr Paolo C. Fienga/Lunar Explorer Italia/Italian Planetary Foundation)85 visiteThe bright, Rayed Impact Crater visible in this image taken by the NASA - MESSENGER Spacecraft, is one of the most prominent that we can find on the Planet Mercury. Named Snorri, after an Icelandic writer and poet, this Impact Crater is approx. 21 Km (such as a little more than 13 miles) in diameter and it was, in fact, discovered after the examination of the images returned by the NASA - Mariner 10 Spacecraft when it flew by Mercury on September, 21, 1974.
This frame was acquired as part of MDIS's High-Resolution Surface Morphology Base Map. The Surface Morphology Base Map covers more than 99% of Mercury's Surface with an Average Resolution of 200 meters/pixel. Images acquired for the Surface Morphology Base Map typically are obtained at off-vertical Sun Angles (---> high Solar Incidence Angles) and have visible Shadows so to clearly reveal the actual topographic forms/shapes of the imaged Geologic Features.
Date acquired: October, 14th, 2011
Image Mission Elapsed Time (MET): 227045180
Image ID: 882221
Instrument: Narrow Angle Camera (NAC) of the Mercury Dual Imaging System (MDIS)
Center Latitude: 9,42° South
Center Longitude: 277,10° East
Resolution: 195 meters/pixel
Solar Incidence Angle: 22,4° (meaning that the Sun, at the time that the picture was taken, was about 67,6° above the imaged Local Mercurian Horizon)
Emission Angle: 51,0°
Sun-Mercury-Messenger (or "Phase") Angle: 73,4°
This image (which is an Original NASA - MESSENGER Spacecraft Map Projected b/w frame published on the NASA - Planetary Photojournal with the ID n. PIA 16993) has been additionally processed and then colorized in Absolute Natural Colors (such as the colors that a human eye would actually perceive if someone were onboard the NASA - MESSENGER Spacecraft and then looked down, towards the Surface of Mercury), by using an original technique created - and, in time, dramatically improved - by the Lunar Explorer Italia Team. Different colors, as well as different shades of the same color, mean, among other things, the existence of different Elements (Minerals) present on the Surface of Mercury, each having a different Albedo (---> Reflectivity) and Chemical Composition.MareKromium
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ZZ-Mercury-Craters-Soseki-PIA16356-PCF-LXTT-IPF.jpgFeatures of Soseki Crater (Absolute Natural Colors; credits for the additional process. and color.: Dr Paolo C. Fienga/Lunar Explorer Italia/Italian Planetary Foundation)82 visiteThis Image-Mosaic shows part of the Mercurian Crater Soseki, in the North/West. A deep Scarp cuts through several Impact Craters visible on the right side of the image, though it does not stand out in this high-Sun view. The bright band crossing from upper right to lower left, is a Ray coming from the Crater Hokusai, which is located far away, to the North/East. Hokusai's Rays overprint older Impact Craters and cover a large portion of the whole Planet.
This image was acquired as a High-Resolution Targeted Color Observation. Targeted Color Observations are images of a small area on Mercury's Surface at resolutions higher than the 1-kilometer per pixel "Color Base Map". During MESSENGER's one-year Primary Mission, hundreds of Targeted Color Observations were obtained. During MESSENGER's extended mission, HR Targeted Color Observations are more rare, as the Color Base Map is covering Mercury's Northern Hemisphere with the highest-resolution color images that are possible.
Date acquired: April 09, 2011
Image Mission Elapsed Time (MET): 210807763, 210807759, 210807755
Image ID: 108194, 108193, 108192
Instrument: Wide Angle Camera (WAC) of the Mercury Dual Imaging System (MDIS)
WAC filters: 9, 7, 6 (996, 748, 433 nanometers) in red, green, and blue
Center Latitude: 36,39° North
Center Longitude: 323,5° East
Resolution: 302 meters/pixel
Scale: the Unnamed Impact Crater with the bright Floor (visible in the upper left corner of the frame) is about 32 Km in diameter (such as approx. 20 miles)
Solar Incidence Angle: 37,5° (meaning that the Sun was about 52,5° above the imaged Local Horizon at the time that the pictures were taken)
Emission Angle: 11,2°
Sun-Mercury-MESSENGER (or "Phase") Angle: 48,7°MareKromium
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ZZ-Mercury-Craters-Stieglitz_Crater-Central_Peak-PIA16420-PCF-LXTT-IPF.jpgLong Shadows from the Complex Central Peak of Stieglitz Crater (Absolute Natural Colors; credits for the additional process. and color.: Dr Paolo C. Fienga/Lunar Explorer Italia/Italian Planetary Foundation)87 visiteThis really beautiful and dramatic image taken by the NASA - MESSENGER Spacecraft shows us the Central Peak of the Stieglitz Impact Crater, which is located high on Mercury's Northern Hemisphere. The fresh appearance of its Ejecta Deposit suggests that Stieglitz is a relatively young Crater. Intriguingly, Stieglitz also hosts some significant amounts of Radar-Bright Materials whose origin and composition is, so far, unknown.
Date acquired: August, 27th, 2012
Image Mission Elapsed Time (MET): 254597521
Image ID: 2471477
Instrument: Narrow Angle Camera (NAC) of the Mercury Dual Imaging System (MDIS)
Center Latitude: 72,71° North
Center Longitude: 67,90° East
Resolution: 17 meters/pixel
Solar Incidence Angle: 83,4° (meaning that the Sun, at the time that the picture was taken, was about 6,6° above the imaged Local Mercurian Horizon)
Emission Angle: 47,6°
Sun-Mercury-Messenger (or "Phase") Angle: 130,9°
This picture (which is an Original NASA - MESSENGER Spacecraft b/w frame published on the NASA - Planetary Photojournal with the ID n. PIA 16420) has been additionally processed and then colorized in Absolute Natural Colors (such as the colors that a human eye would actually perceive if someone were onboard the NASA - MESSENGER Spacecraft and then looked down, towards the Surface of Mercury), by using an original technique created - and, in time, dramatically improved - by the Lunar Explorer Italia Team. Different colors, as well as different shades of the same color, mean, among other things, the existence of different Elements (Minerals) present on the Surface of Mercury, each having a different Albedo (---> Reflectivity) and Chemical Composition.MareKromium
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ZZ-Mercury-Craters-Sveinsdottir_Crater-PIA11078.jpgSveinsdóttir Crater in 3D53 visiteThis graphic shows a portion of the fault scarp Beagle Rupes cutting through the highly elliptical crater Sveinsdóttir in a three-dimensional (3D) representation.
By combining information from multiple images of the same portion of Mercury's surface taken under different viewing angles, the topography of the surface was determined. A high-resolution image was then overlaid on the topography map, resulting in this 3D image.
In total, over 80 MESSENGER images were used to create this 3D view of Mercury's surface.
As the MESSENGER mission continues, many more images will be acquired, and these additional images will provide views of Mercury's surface from a variety of illumination conditions and viewing geometries. These myriad views, anchored by topographic profiles to be acquired by MESSENGER's laser altimeter, will enable large portions of the surface of Mercury to be studied in 3D.
Date Acquired: January 14, 2008
Image Mission Elapsed Time (MET) : NAC image from 108830230 resampled on a topographic map made from more than 80 NAC and WAC images.
Instrument: Narrow Angle Camera (NAC) and Wide Angle Camera (WAC) of the Mercury Dual Imaging System (MDIS)
Scale: Sveinsdóttir Crater is about 120 by 220 Km (approx. 75 by 140 miles). MareKromium
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