PIA15758: Abedin in Color


Abedin in Color

Caption:

Abedin crater is one of several large, fresh craters that formed within Mercury's northern volcanic plains deposit. The northern plains appear to be a thick deposit of relatively uniform composition, and Abedin also shows little color variation in its ejecta; portions of Abedin's impact melt are slightly more red in this view.

This image was acquired as a high-resolution targeted color observation. Targeted color observations are images of a small area on Mercury's surface at resolutions higher than the 1-kilometer/pixel 8-color base map. During MESSENGER's one-year primary mission, hundreds of targeted color observations were obtained. During MESSENGER's extended mission, high-resolution targeted color observations are more rare, as the 3-color base map is covering Mercury's northern hemisphere with the highest-resolution color images that are possible.

Date acquired: March 21, 2012
Image Mission Elapsed Time (MET): 240792733, 240792729, 240792725
Image ID: 1543743, 1543742, 1543741
Instrument: Wide Angle Camera (WAC) of the Mercury Dual Imaging System (MDIS)
WAC filters: 9, 7, 6 (996, 748, 433 nanometers) in red, green, and blue
Center Latitude: 60.41°
Center Longitude: 351.5° E
Resolution: 147 meters/pixel
Scale: Abedin is 116 km (72 miles) in diameter
Incidence Angle: 60.6°
Emission Angle: 26.8°
Phase Angle: 33.7°

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 acquired 88,746 images and extensive other data sets. MESSENGER is now in a year-long extended mission, during which plans call for the acquisition of more than 80,000 additional images to support 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 Wide Angle Camera (WAC)
Extra Keywords Color, Crater, Impact, Map, Radio, Volcano
Acquisition Date
Release Date 2012-05-09
Date in Caption 2012-03-21
Image Credit NASA/Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory/Carnegie Institution of Washington
Source photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA15758
Identifier PIA15758