Portrait of a Scarp - Nasa Messenger Mission Image: Release Date 6 March 2012

MESSENGER: MErcury Surface, Space ENvironment, GEochemistry, and Ranging

Date acquired: February 05, 2012 Image Mission Elapsed Time (MET): 236961590 Image ID: 1357377 Instrument: Narrow Angle Camera (NAC) of the Mercury Dual Imaging System (MDIS) Center Latitude: -29.79° Center Longitude: 83.26° E Resolution: 184 meters/pixel Scale: The large crater at the bottom of the image is about 59 km (37 miles) in diameter. Incidence Angle: 57.8° Emission Angle: 39.0° Phase Angle: 78.2° Of Interest: This image, taken with the Narrow Angle Camera (NAC), shows a simple crater within Rembrandt Basin. Running through the crater is a lobate scarp, formed as Mercury's large iron core cooled and contracted, generating compressive forces that pushed one section of the planet's crust over the top of another section. Determining the geometry of such scarps and the time periods when deformation occurred can help scientists to understand the thermal history of the planet. 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