Contact High: Nasa Messenger Mission Image of the Day Gallery: Release Date 17 Oct 2011

Date acquired: April 20 and 22, 2011 Image ID: 153502, 163688, 163689 Instrument: Wide Angle Camera (WAC) of the Mercury Dual Imaging System (MDIS) WAC filter: 7 (748 nanometers) Center Latitude: 82.3° Center Longitude: 330.9° E Resolution: 173 meters/pixel Scale: The two largest impact craters are about 25 km (15 mi.) in diameter. Of Interest: This mosaic shows the geological contact between a lava flow front, which advanced from the west (left) and the pre-existing terrain that it covered. The lava flowed into and almost completely filled a medium-sized crater in the center of the scene. Other amazing lava flow features were shown in recent Gallery releases. A portion of this mosaic appeared as Fig. 3F of J. W. Head et al. Science 333, 1853 (2011). These images were acquired as part of MDIS's high-resolution surface morphology base map. The surface morphology base map will cover more than 90% of Mercury's surface with an average resolution of 250 meters/pixel (0.16 miles/pixel or 820 feet/pixel). Images acquired for the surface morphology base map typically have off-vertical Sun angles (i.e., high incidence angles) and visible shadows so as to reveal clearly the topographic form of geologic features.

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