Degas’ Close Up

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Caption:

This spectacular image of Degas crater emphasizes the crater's dark floor covered in Low Reflectance Material ( LRM ), its central peaks, and its characteristic floor cracks . Also highlighted is the crater's slumping crater walls .

This image was acquired as a targeted high-resolution 11-color image set. Acquiring 11-color targets is a new campaign that began in March 2013 and that utilizes all of the WAC's 11 narrow-band color filters. Because of the large data volume involved, only features of special scientific interest are targeted for imaging in all 11 colors.

Date acquired: April 23, 2013
Image Mission Elapsed Time (MET): 9030507, 9030499, 9030495
Image ID: 3935833, 3935831, 3935830
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: 37.03°
Center Longitude: 232.9° E
Resolution: 182 meters/pixel
Scale: Degas crater is ~52 km (32 miles) in diameter.
Incidence Angle: 45.6°
Emission Angle: 8.0°
Phase Angle: 39.9°

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. MESSENGER acquired over 150,000 images and extensive other data sets. MESSENGER is capable of continuing orbital operations until early 2015.

For information regarding the use of images, see the MESSENGER image use policy .

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