A View Towards the Plains

This view was captured as MDIS pointed to the east, which is oriented as the top of this image. Smooth plains extend into the distance, while the closer ground near the bottom of the image is more heavily cratered and hence rougher in texture. This location is on the edge of volcanic smooth plains that covers a a great extent of Mercury’s northern region.

This image was acquired as part of MDIS’s high-resolution surface morphology base map. The surface morphology base map will cover more than 90% of Mercury’s surface with an average resolution of 250 meters/pixel (0.16 miles/pixel or 820 feet/pixel). Images acquired for the surface morphology base map typically have off-vertical Sun angles (i.e., high incidence angles) and visible shadows so as to reveal clearly the topographic form of geologic features.

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, MDIS is scheduled to acquire more than 75,000 images in support of MESSENGER’s science goals.

Date acquired: August 12, 2011
Image Mission Elapsed Time (MET): 221626724
Image ID: 622112
Instrument: Wide Angle Camera (WAC) of the Mercury Dual Imaging System (MDIS)
WAC filter: 7 (748 nanometers)
Center Latitude: 62.40°
Center Longitude: 321.6° E
Resolution: 242 meters/pixel
Scale: The bottom of this image is 220 kilometers (140 miles) across
Incidence Angle: 82.5°
Emission Angle: 59.4°
Phase Angle: 142.0°

These images are from MESSENGER, a NASA Discovery mission to conduct the first orbital study of the innermost planet, Mercury. For information regarding the use of images, see the MESSENGER [

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