Mozart Roughs ‘Em Up

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Caption:

Wolfgang's namesake basin has had a large effect on Mercury. Ejecta from the 241-kilometer-diameter (150 mi.) impact basin has left an enormous network of rough terrain , in beautiful contrast to the basin's smooth interior. Mozart basin lies just a hop, skip and a jump away from the planet's largest impact basin, Caloris.

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 02, 2013
Image Mission Elapsed Time (MET): 22999301
Image ID: 4929063
Instrument: Narrow Angle Camera (NAC) of the Mercury Dual Imaging System (MDIS)
Center Latitude: 12.52°
Center Longitude: 168.0° E
Resolution: 47 meters/pixel
Scale: The entire image is approximately 95 km (59 mi.) across.
Incidence Angle: 78.9°
Emission Angle: 59.6°
Phase Angle: 138.5°
North is down in this image.

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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