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Time to Vent
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Caption:
This kidney-shaped depression lies along the inner margin of the Caloris basin and was first imaged during MESSENGER's first flyby of the innermost planet. The rimless, non-circular depression is the vent of a small, explosive volcano, similar to other volcanic vents on Mercury. The small number of superposed craters indicates that this feature is relatively young.
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:
June 07, 2011
Image Mission Elapsed Time (MET):
215894570
Image ID:
347724
Instrument:
Narrow Angle Camera (NAC) of the Mercury Dual Imaging System (MDIS)
Center Latitude:
22.5°
Center Longitude:
146.1° E
Resolution:
28 meters/pixel
Scale:
The depression is approximately 23 km (14 mi.) across its longest dimension.
Incidence Angle:
39.6°
Emission Angle:
45.5°
Phase Angle:
78.3°
Background Info:
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.
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, Volcano | |
| Acquisition Date | ||
| Release Date | 2012-01-03 | |
| Date in Caption | 2011-06-07 | |
| Image Credit | NASA/Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory/Carnegie Institution of Washington | |
| Source | photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA15245 | |
| Identifier | PIA15245 | |
