PIA14218: Bek's Close Up


Bek’s Close Up

Caption:

This oblique image of Bek (32 km in diameter) is a higher-resolution NAC complement to yesterday's WAC image . The sharp crater rim is in contrast to its subdued surroundings, where crater ejecta scoured the surface and left behind many secondary 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 250-meter/pixel (820 feet/pixel) morphology base map or the 1-kilometer/pixel (0.6 miles/pixel) color base map. It is not possible to cover all of Mercury's surface at this high resolution during MESSENGER's one-year mission, but several areas of high scientific interest are generally imaged in this mode each week.

Date acquired: April 07, 2011
Image Mission Elapsed Time (MET): 210633745
Image ID: 99922
Instrument: Narrow Angle Camera (NAC) of the Mercury Dual Imaging System (MDIS)
Center Latitude: 21.38°
Center Longitude: 308.7° E
Resolution: 61 meters/pixel
Scale: The diameter of Bek is 32 km (20 miles)
Incidence Angle: 36.1°
Emission Angle: 51.5°
Phase Angle: 49.1°

Background Info:

On March 17, 2011 (March 18, 2011, UTC), MESSENGER became the first spacecraft ever to orbit the planet Mercury . The mission is currently in its commissioning phase, during which spacecraft and instrument performance are verified through a series of specially designed checkout activities. In the course of the one-year primary mission, the spacecraft's seven scientific instruments and radio science investigation will unravel the history and evolution of the Solar System's innermost planet. Visit the Why Mercury? section of this website to learn more about the science questions that the MESSENGER mission has set out to answer.

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 .

Cataloging Keywords:

Name Value Additional Values
Target Mercury
System
Target Type Planet
Mission MESSENGER
Instrument Host MESSENGER
Host Type Orbiter
Instrument Mercury Dual Imaging System (MDIS)
Detector Narrow Angle Camera (NAC)
Extra Keywords Crater, Grayscale, Map, Radio
Acquisition Date
Release Date 2011-04-13
Date in Caption 2011-04-07
Image Credit NASA/Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory/Carnegie Institution of Washington
Source photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA14218
Identifier PIA14218