A View of Oskison in Mercury’s North

• Click the image above for a larger view
• Full-Res JPEG (1018 x 1025) (116.4 kB)
• Full-Res TIFF (1018 x 1025) (1.0 MB)

Caption:

Click on the image
for larger version

The crater Oskison is located in the far northern hemisphere of Mercury, in the plains north of Caloris basin ( PIA10359 ). Oskison is a distinctive crater with a large central peak that exposes material excavated from depth. In this NAC image, many chains of secondary craters ( PIA10178 ) are visible (green arrows), radiating from Oskison outward onto the surrounding smooth plains. Oskison was just named in November 2008 for John Milton Oskison, a Cherokee author (1874-1947) (see PIA11762 ).

Date Acquired: January 14, 2008
Image Mission Elapsed Time (MET): 108828799
Instrument: Narrow Angle Camera (NAC) of the Mercury Dual Imaging System (MDIS)
Resolution: 550 meters (0.34 miles) per pixel
Scale: Oskison is 120 kilometers (75 miles) in diameter
Spacecraft Altitude: 21,700 kilometers (13,500 miles)

Background Info:

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: