Petrarch's Rough Neighborhood: Nasa Messenger Mission Image: Release Date 13 Sept 2011

Date acquired: September 02, 2011 Image Mission Elapsed Time (MET): 223444635 Image ID: 708150 Instrument: Narrow Angle Camera (NAC) of the Mercury Dual Imaging System (MDIS) Center Latitude: -29.60° Center Longitude: 332.1° E Resolution: 182 meters/pixel Scale: From the left point to the right point, this image is about 135 km (84 miles) wide. Incidence Angle: 39.6° Emission Angle: 18.8° Phase Angle: 58.4° Of Interest: Taken with the Narrow Angle Camera (NAC), this image shows part of the impact basin Petrarch, named for the 14th century Italian scholar, poet, and "Father of Humanism" Francesco Petrarca. Much of the surface near Petrarch is unusually rough and textured. The Mariner 10 team informally dubbed this surface "weird terrain" (though it was later named "hilly and lineated terrain" for official geologic maps). MESSENGER imaged this region during the mission's second Mercury flyby as well as a portion of it early in the orbital mission.

Credit: NASA/Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory/Carnegie Institution of Washington