Moody Sculpts Mercury’s Surface

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Caption:

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The crater identified in this NAC image was named in November 2008 for Ronald Moody, a 20th century Jamaican sculptor and painter (see PIA11762 ). Moody features a central peak or peak-ring structure and an annulus of dark material on its outer floor (green arrows). The area inward of the dark ring appears reddish in enhanced color WAC images ( PIA11219 ), indicating the presence of material different in composition from that of either the dark material or the crater's immediate surroundings. Dark material has been found associated with other craters on Mercury, including Munch and Poe ( PIA12034 ). Moody is somewhat unusual for having its dark ring confined to the crater floor, rather than forming the crater rim as at Munch and Poe.

Date Acquired: January 14, 2008
Image Mission Elapsed Time (MET): 108829034
Instrument: Narrow Angle Camera (NAC) of the Mercury Dual Imaging System (MDIS)
Resolution: 590 meters/pixel (0.37 miles)
Scale: Moody is 80 kilometers (50 miles) in diameter
Spacecraft Altitude: 23,100 kilometers (14,300 miles)

Background Info:

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 image use policy .

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