Crater Close-up Captured!

As MESSENGER passes progressively closer to Mercury, we see ever more resolved features in the images the spacecraft returns. Here, at a pixel scale of 9 meters, we see the eastern portion of an unnamed crater 13 km (8 mi.) in diameter. The wall of the crater is replete with smaller, superposed craters, some of which appear elongate possibly because they impacted on the larger crater's inclined wall. Interestingly, there are bright spots on the sunlight portion of this crater's wall -- which is where we might expect hollows to form. 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: March 3, 2014 Image Mission Elapsed Time (MET): 36136338 Image ID: 5862963 Instrument: Narrow Angle Camera (NAC) of the Mercury Dual Imaging System (MDIS) Center Latitude: 56.3° Center Longitude: 301.6° E Resolution: 9 meters/pixel Scale: The field of view in this image is 11 km (7 mi.) across Incidence Angle: 59.3° Emission Angle: 43.0° Phase Angle: 102.3° North is to the right in this scene. http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA18372