A Small Pond - Nasa Messenger Image: Release Date12 Dec 2011

Date acquired: November 06, 2011 Image Mission Elapsed Time (MET): 229105038 Image ID: 980525 Instrument: Narrow Angle Camera (NAC) of the Mercury Dual Imaging System (MDIS) Center Latitude: 63.9° Center Longitude: 256.5° E Resolution: 16 meters/pixel Scale: The smooth region is approximately 3 km (1.9 miles) across Incidence Angle: 69.5° Emission Angle: 15.6° Phase Angle: 85.2° Of Interest: This image shows a small pond of impact melt that was ejected from a crater just out of view. The melt ponded in this low, forming a smooth surface similar to the melt ponds south of Kuiper crater. North is toward the upper right corner. 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 250-meter/pixel (820 feet/pixel) morphology base map or the 1-kilometer/pixel (0.6 miles/pixel) color base map. It is not possible to cover all of Mercury's surface at this high resolution during MESSENGER's one-year mission, but several areas of high scientific interest are generally imaged in this mode each week.

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