Sublime Sublimation, Not Subliminal Nasa Messenger Mission Images Release Date 30 Sept 2011

Date Presented: September 29, 2011, at a NASA press briefing Instrument: Mercury Dual Imaging System (MDIS) Of Interest: View of a section of the floor and peak-ring mountains of the Raditladi impact basin, including the area in a previous Gallery image. The individual frames in the mosaic are about 20 km wide. The rounded, depressions, called "hollows" are a fascinating discovery of MESSENGER's orbital mission and may have been formed by sublimation of a component of the material when exposed by the Raditladi impact. This image was created by merging high-resolution monochrome images from MESSENGER's Narrow Angle Camera with a lower-resolution enhanced-color image obtained by the Wide Angle Camera.

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