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ZZ-Mercury-Craters-Unnamed_Craters-PIA15857-PCF-LXTT-IPF.jpgCraters on the Mercurian Terminator (Absolute Natural Colors; credits for the additional process. and color.: Dr Paolo C. Fienga/Lunar Explorer Italia/Italian Planetary Foundation)121 visiteThis is a beautiful and dramatic image of the Surface of Planet Mercury that was taken by the NASA - MESSENGER Spacecraft just when the Sun was a mere 10 degrees above the Local (imaged here) Horizon. The frame shows us four (4) Simple Unnamed Impact Craters which are all located on top of the Rim of a larger (approx. 3 Km-diameter) Simple Unnamed Crater (look from about 12 to a little after 1 o' clock of the disc drawn by the larger Crater) which, on its side, is positioned on the Outer Rim of an even larger (such as approx. 35 Km-diameter) Unnamed Complex Impact Crater which has been already caught and flooded by the shadows of the Mercurian Night.
As a matter of fact, the Rims of the four small Impact Craters show almost no signs of Erosion, or Collapse, and this circumstance marks them (always relatively speaking) as "young" Surface Features. However, while almost the entire Surface of Mercury is covered by Chains of small Craters (mostly formed by the action of repeated "waves" of Ejecta Boulders), these four small Craters DO NOT form nor constitute what is technically defined as a "Chain of Craters".
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 usual 200-meters per pixel Morphology Base Map. It is not possible to cover all of Mercury's Surface at such an High Resolution, but typically several areas of remarkable scientific interest are imaged in this mode each week.
Date acquired: May, 2nd, 2012
Image Mission Elapsed Time (MET): 217183900
Image ID: 1750578
Instrument: Narrrow Angle Camera (NAC) of the Mercury Dual Imaging System (MDIS)
WAC filter: 7 (748 nanometers)
Center Latitude: 79,27° North
Center Longitude: 232,13° East
Resolution: 15 meters/pixel
Solar Incidence Angle: 79,8° (meaning that the Sun, at the time that the picture was taken, was about 10,2° above the Local Mercurian Horizon)
Emission Angle: 11,9°
Sun-Mercury-Messenger (or "Phase") Angle: 67,9°
This frame (which is an Original NASA - MESSENGER Spacecraft image published on the NASA - Planetary Photojournal with the ID n. PIA 15857) 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 the Planet 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-Unnamed_Craters-PIA17827-PCF-LXTT-IPF-00.jpgMercurian Nightfall (CTX Frame - Absolute Natural Colors; credits for the additional process. and color.: Dr Paolo C. Fienga/Lunar Explorer Italia/Italian Planetary Foundation)72 visiteWith the Sun already extremely low in the Sky over this Mercurian Region located in the Northern Hemisphere of the Innermost Planet of the Solar System (the Sun is only about 8° above the imaged Local Horizon), the long, deep and dark Shadows created by this specific Spatial Configuration, accentuate the very uneven (---> highly irregular) nature of the Terrain.
In fact, the Surface visible here (---> we are looking at a scene which is about 14,6 Km - such as a very little more than 9 miles - across) has been battered - for eons and eons - by a countless number of Meteors and other Cosmic Impactors, until the Hilly Surface that exists and we can see today was finally created. For the most attentive Viewers, we, as IPF, strongly suggest you to take a careful look at the (very unusually-looking) Surface Feature (probably an oblong Secondary Crater with a strange - and still illuminated - Central Peak) that is located on the lower portion of the frame, slightly towards the left (Sx).
Date acquired: November, 12th, 2013
Image Mission Elapsed Time (MET): 26543484
Image ID: 5181047
Instrument: Narrow Angle Camera (NAC) of the Mercury Dual Imaging System (MDIS)
Center Latitude: 67,11° North
Center Longitude: 249,80° East
Solar Incidence Angle: 82,0° (meaning that the Sun, at the time that the picture was taken, was about 8,0° above the imaged Local Mercurian Horizon)
Emission Angle: 36,9°
Sun-Mercury-Messenger (or "Phase") Angle: 118,9°
This picture (which is an Original NASA - MESSENGER Spacecraft's b/w and NON-Map-Projected image published on the NASA - Planetary Photojournal with the ID n. PIA 17827) has been additionally processed, contrast enhanced, Gamma corrected, magnified to aid the visibility of the details 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 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-Unnamed_Craters-PIA17827-PCF-LXTT-IPF-2.jpgMercurian Nightfall (EDM - Absolute Natural Colors; credits for the additional process. and color.: Dr Paolo C. Fienga/Lunar Explorer Italia/Italian Planetary Foundation)83 visiteWith the Sun already extremely low in the Sky over this Mercurian Region located in the Northern Hemisphere of the Innermost Planet of the Solar System (the Sun is only about 8° above the imaged Local Horizon), the long, deep and dark Shadows created by this specific Spatial Configuration, accentuate the very uneven (---> highly irregular) nature of the Terrain.
This picture, which is just a Magnified Crop taken from yesterdy's frame, shows, to the most attentive Viewers, a very unusually-looking Surface Feature whose origin and nature cannot be identified with certainty. However, it could - probably - be an oblong Secondary Crater with a strange - and still illuminated - Central Peak, or, maybe, a Wall-like Relief that divides the Floor of a Pit Crater. Again, as we said herebefore, a definitive answer about what we are actually looking at, cannot be given at this time.
The Feature here, if you wish to take a look at the so-called Contextual Image (CTX Frame), is located on the lower portion of the frame, slightly towards the left (Sx).
Date acquired: November, 12th, 2013
Image Mission Elapsed Time (MET): 26543484
Image ID: 5181047
Instrument: Narrow Angle Camera (NAC) of the Mercury Dual Imaging System (MDIS)
Center Latitude: 67,11° North
Center Longitude: 249,80° East
Solar Incidence Angle: 82,0° (meaning that the Sun, at the time that the picture was taken, was about 8,0° above the imaged Local Mercurian Horizon)
Emission Angle: 36,9°
Sun-Mercury-Messenger (or "Phase") Angle: 118,9°
This picture (which is a crop taken by an Original NASA - MESSENGER Spacecraft's b/w and NON-Map-Projected image published on the NASA - Planetary Photojournal with the ID n. PIA 17827) has been additionally processed, contrast enhanced, Gamma corrected, magnified to aid the visibility of the details 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 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-Unnamed_Double-Ring_Basin.jpgDouble "Concentric" Basin on Mercury (Natural Colors; credits: Lunexit)53 visiteCaption NASA, da "NASA - Picture of the Day" del giorno 7 Ottobre 2009:"What created the internal second ring of this Double Ringed Basin on Mercury?
No one is sure.
The unusual feature spans approx. 160 Km and was imaged during the robotic MESSENGER Spacecraft's swing past our Solar System's innermost planet. Double and Multiple Ringed Basins, although rare, have also been imaged in years past on Mars, Venus, Earth and Earth's Moon.
Mercury itself has several doubles, including huge Caloris Basin, Rembrandt Basin and enigmatic Raditladi Basin. Most large circular features on planets and moons are caused initially by a forceful impact by a single asteroid or comet fragment. Since it is unlikely that a second impact would occur right in the center of the first, large double rings are usually attributed to a subsequent volcanic lava flow inside the impact crater.
Possibly, though, a second ring could be caused by the melting and flowing of material upon impact. One clue to the origin of the above-imaged double ring is that the basin center appears much smoother than the region between the rings. MESSENGER has now completed its last flyby of Mercury but will return and attempt to enter orbit in March 2011".MareKromium
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ZZ-Mercury-Craters-Unnamed_Double-Ring_Crater-208672.jpgDouble-Ringed Crater (HR)53 visiteNASA’s MESSENGER Spacecraft’s closest approach to Mercury on January 14, 2008, acquired this image as part of a mosaic that covers much of the sunlit portion of a hemisphere not view by previous spacecraft. Images such as this can be read in terms of a sequence of geological events and provide insight into the relative timing of processes that have acted on Mercury's surface in the past.
The double-ringed crater pictured in the upper right of this image appears to be filled with smooth plains material, perhaps volcanic in nature.
This crater was subsequently disrupted by the formation of a prominent cliff, the surface expression of a major crustal fault system that runs alongside part of its southern rim. This may have led to the uplift seen across a portion of the crater’s floor. A smaller crater in the upper left of the image also has been cut by the cliff, showing that the fault beneath the cliff was active after both of these craters had formed.MareKromium
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ZZ-Mercury-Craters-Unnamed_Double-Ring_Crater-PIA12368.jpgUnnamed Double-Ring Basin (Natural Colors; credits: Lunexit)54 visiteThis spectacular approx. 290-Km-diameter Double-Ring Basin seen in detail for the first time during MESSENGER's 3rd flyby of Mercury bears a striking resemblance to Raditladi Basin, observed during the 1st flyby.
This still-unnamed basin is remarkably well preserved and appears to have formed relatively recently, compared with most basins on Mercury. The low numbers of superposed impact craters and marked differences in color across the basin (seen in this enhanced color image released earlier this week) suggest that the smooth area within the innermost ring may be the site of some of the most recent volcanism on Mercury.
Date Acquired: September 29, 2009
Instrument: Narrow Angle Camera (NAC) of the Mercury Dual Imaging System (MDIS)
Scale: This double-ring basin is approx. 290 Km (about 180 miles) in diameterMareKromium
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ZZ-Mercury-Craters-Unnamed_Impact_Crater_with_Pond-PIA18371-PCF-LXTT-IPF.jpgImpact's Melt "Pond" (CTX Frame - Absolute Natural Colors; credits for the additional process. and color.: Dr Paolo C. Fienga/Lunar Explorer Italia/Italian Planetary Foundation)120 visiteThis High-Resolution Contextual (CTX) Image, taken by NASA - MESSENGER Spacecraft on the date of March, 10, 2014, shows us a few Ponds (---> small Lake-like Features) made of Impact Melt (remember that this kind of Surface Features appear to us way smoother than the Terrain which surrounds them).
In particular, these Melt Ponds (where the bigger one looks like some sort of a Flat Ellipse, with its Major Axis measuring approx. 1 Km - and visible at about 10 o' clock of the frame) were deposited (probably) as Fluid Ejecta (---> such as Ejecta made of liquid or semi-liquid Rock) coming from an Unnamed Impact Crater located to the North (top) of the picture, but not visible here.
Date acquired: March, 10th, 2014
Image Mission Elapsed Time (MET): 36770132
Image ID: 5908036
Instrument: Narrow Angle Camera (NAC) of the Mercury Dual Imaging System (MDIS)
Center Latitude: 63,77° North
Center Longitude: 254,70° East
Solar Incidence Angle: 72,5° (meaning that the Sun, at the time that the picture was taken, was about 17,5° above the imaged Local Mercurian Horizon)
Emission Angle: 6,3°
Sun-Mercury-Messenger (or "Phase") Angle: 78,9°
This picture (which is an Original NASA - MESSENGER Spacecraft's b/w and Map-Projected image published on the NASA - Planetary Photojournal with the ID n. PIA 18371) has been additionally processed, contrast enhanced, Gamma corrected, magnified to aid the visibility of the details 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 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-Unnamed_Rayed_Crater-208635.jpgUnnamed Crater with Bright Ejecta Rays (HR)53 visiteDuring its flyby of Mercury on Jan. 14, 2008, NASA’s MESSENGER spacecraft acquired High-Resolution (HR) images of the Planet's surface. This image shows a previously unseen crater with distinctive bright rays of ejected material extending outward from the crater's center.
A chain of craters nearby is also visible. Studying impact craters provides insight into the history and composition of Mercury as well as dynamical processes that occurred throughout our Solar System.
This image is one of 99 taken by the Spacecraft to enable the creation of a large, HR mosaic of the northeast quarter of the Region.MareKromium
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ZZ-Mercury-Craters-Unnamed_Rayed_Crater-209510.jpgRayed Crater on Mercury53 visiteJust above and to the left of center of this image is a small crater with a pronounced set of bright rays extending across Mercury's surface away from the crater. Bright rays are commonly made in a crater-forming explosion when an asteroid strikes the surface of an airless body like the Moon or Mercury. But rays fade with time as tiny meteoroids and particles from the Solar Wind strike the surface and darken the rays. The prominence of these rays implies that the small crater at the center of the ray pattern formed comparatively recently.
This image is 1 in a planned set of 99. Nine different views of Mercury were snapped in this set to create a mosaic pattern with images in 3 rows and 3 columns. The WAC is equipped with 11 narrow-band color filters, and each of the 9 different views was acquired through all 11 filters. This image was taken in filter 7, which is sensitive to light near the red end of the visible spectrum (750 nm), and shows features as small as about 6 Km (about 4 miles) in size.
The MESSENGER team is studying this previously unseen side of Mercury in detail to map and identify new geologic features and to construct the Planet’s geological history.
Mission Elapsed Time (MET) of image: 108827618MareKromium
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ZZ-Mercury-Craters-Unnamed_Rayed_Crater-PIA12068.jpgRayed Crater Cluster (possible Natural Colors; credits: Lunar Explorer Italia)53 visiteThis NAC image from MESSENGER’s second Mercury flyby shows a crater with a set of light-colored rays radiating outward from it. Such rays are formed when an impact excavates material from below the surface and throws it outward from the crater.
These bright rays, consisting both of ejecta and the secondary craters that form when the ejected material re-impacts the surface, slowly begin to fade as they are exposed to the harsh space environment.
Mercury and other airless planetary bodies are constantly being bombarded with Micrometeorites and Energetic Ions, an effect known as "Space Weathering".
Craters with bright rays are thought to be relatively young because the rays are still visible, suggesting that they have had less exposure to Weathering processes. The crater in the center of this image has rays that have already begun to fade, implying that it is older than some other rayed craters on Mercury’s surface. Images of younger craters with much brighter and more striking rays have been previously released (see PIA11355).
Date Acquired: October 6, 2008
Image Mission Elapsed Time (MET): 131771863
Instrument: Narrow Angle Camera (NAC) of the Mercury Dual Imaging System (MDIS)
Resolution: 240 meters/pixel (0,15 miles/pixel)
Scale: Image is approximately 240 Km (about 150 miles) wide
Spacecraft Altitude: about 9500 Km (approx. 5900 miles)MareKromium
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ZZ-Mercury-Craters-Unnamed_Southern_Rayed_Crater-PIA11371.jpgSpectacular "Rayed-Crater" (Enhanced Natural Colors; credits for the additional process. and color.: Dr Paolo C. Fienga - Lunexit Team)53 visiteThis NAC image shows a bright crater with an extensive system of impact ejecta rays; the crater is also clearly visible on the Southern portion of Mercury near the Limb of the Planet in the departure full-planet image (see PIA11245).
This impact crater and its associated system of rays were originally detected in 1969 as a “bright feature” in radar images at 12,5-centimeter wavelength obtained by the Goldstone Observatory in California. Subsequently, about a decade ago, radar images acquired by the Arecibo Observatory in Puerto Rico clearly revealed this feature to be a crater with a fresh system of rays of rough material radiating outward from it. This feature has been referred to simply as Feature “A”.
MESSENGER’s recent Mercury flyby provided the first Spacecraft images of Feature “A”, enabling this relatively young crater with its impressive set of rays to be seen here in close-up detail.
Date Acquired: October 6, 2008
Image Mission Elapsed Time (MET): 131773947
Instrument: Narrow Angle Camera (NAC) of the Mercury Dual Imaging System (MDIS)
Resolution: 530 meters/pixel (0,33 miles/pixel)
Scale: The bright rayed crater is approx. 80 Km (about 50 miles) in diameter
Spacecraft Altitude: approx. 20.600 Km (about 12.800 miles)MareKromium
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ZZ-Mercury-Craters-Vyasa_and_Stravinsky_Crater-PIA12035_fig1.jpgLow-Sun over Mercury...53 visiteThis NAC image shows a close-up view of the craters Vyasa and Stravinsky (see PIA11360). Stravinsky is the smooth-floored crater partially seen on the right side of the image that overlies the rim of the larger, rougher crater Vyasa in the center and left. The low-Sun lighting angle casts distinctive shadows that show Mercury's rough surface, pockmarked by craters of all sizes. Small craters are visible on the smooth-floor of Stravinsky because of the high resolution of this image.
Date Acquired: October 6, 2008
Image Mission Elapsed Time (MET): 131771118
Instrument: Narrow Angle Camera (NAC) of the Mercury Dual Imaging System (MDIS)
Resolution: 140 meters/pixel (0,09 miles/pixel) near the bottom of the image
Scale: Stravinsky crater is about 190 Km in diameter (120 miles)MareKromium
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