Detailed Close-up of Mercury's Previously Unseen Surface

Detailed Close-up of Mercury’s Previously Unseen Surface Release Date: January 16, 2008 Just 21 minutes after MESSENGER’s closest approach to Mercury, the Narrow Angle Camera (NAC) took this picture showing a variety of intriguing surface features, including craters as small as about 300 meters (about 300 yards) across. This is one of a set of 68 NAC images showing landscapes near Mercury’s equator on the side of the planet never before imaged by spacecraft. From such highly detailed close-ups, planetary geologists can study the processes that have shaped Mercury’s surface over the past 4 billion years. One of the highest and longest scarps (cliffs) yet seen on Mercury curves from the top center down across the right side of this image. (The Sun is shining low from the left, so the scarp casts a wide shadow.) Great forces in Mercury’s crust have thrust the terrain occupying the left two-thirds of the picture up and over the terrain to the right. An impact crater has subsequently destroyed a small part of the scarp near the top of the image. This image was taken from a distance of only 5,800 kilometers (3,600 miles) from surface of the planet and shows a region about 170 kilometers (about 100 miles) across.

Credit: NASA/Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory/Carnegie Institution of Washington