Revisiting Rachmaninoff: Nasa Messenger Image - Release Date 10 Oct 2011

Date acquired: September 15, 2011 Image Mission Elapsed Time (MET): 224592808 Image ID: 763457 Instrument: Wide Angle Camera (WAC) of the Mercury Dual Imaging System (MDIS) WAC filter: 7 (748 nanometers) Center Latitude: 26.22° Center Longitude: 58.39° E Resolution: 350 meters/pixel Scale: Rachmaninoff basin is 290 kilometers (180 miles) in diameter Incidence Angle: 61.8° Emission Angle: 0.1° Phase Angle: 61.9° Of Interest: This image, taken with the Wide Angle Camera (WAC), shows Rachmaninoff, a double-ring basin named in March 2010 for the Russian composer, pianist and conductor Sergei Rachmaninoff (1873-1943). Rachmaninoff was first imaged in its entirety during MESSENGER's third Mercury flyby. Of particular interest to geologists are the troughs, or "graben", on the basin floor, which are thought to have formed as the central smooth, volcanic plains cooled or possibly as other tectonic forces pulled the crust apart. This image was 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