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On the Other Side
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Caption:
This beautiful image shows a segment of the rim of the crater Degas . If you're a devoted MESSENGER follower, then you've no doubt heard all about the floor of Degas . So, let's look a little farther up, shall we? Just outside the rim, i.e. the top half of this image, the texture of the surface changes dramatically. This is the continuous ejecta blanket . This material completely covers the pre-existing terrain. In many instances, the composition of the ejecta blanket is different from the composition of the crater itself. This is because the material that forms the ejecta blanket is some of the deepest material thrown out during the formation of the crater.
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 200-meter/pixel morphology base map. It is not possible to cover all of Mercury's surface at this high resolution, but typically several areas of high scientific interest are imaged in this mode each week.
Date acquired:
October 01, 2012
Image Mission Elapsed Time (MET):
257621391
Image ID:
2686511
Instrument:
Narrow Angle Camera (NAC) of the Mercury Dual Imaging System (MDIS)
Center Latitude:
37.60°
Center Longitude:
232.9° E
Resolution:
26 meters/pixel
Scale:
This image is ~28 km ( ~17 mi.) across.
Incidence Angle:
65.2°
Emission Angle:
9.5°
Phase Angle:
74.7°
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.
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 | 2013-03-07 | |
| Date in Caption | 2012-10-01 | |
| Image Credit | NASA/Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory/Carnegie Institution of Washington | |
| Source | photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA16867 | |
| Identifier | PIA16867 | |
