Mercury: Fiery Yellow, Scattered Blue
This false color image shows a bright fresh crater exhibiting possible evidence of a pyroclastic deposit on it’s eastern side (shown by the bright yellow); as well as a series of secondaries which have excavated sub-surface material resulting in the blues seen in the north-east corner of the image.
This image was acquired as a high-resolution targeted color observation. Targeted color observations are images of a small area on Mercury’s surface at resolutions higher than the 1-kilometer/pixel 8-color base map. During MESSENGER’s one-year primary mission, hundreds of targeted color observations were obtained. During MESSENGER’s extended mission, high-resolution targeted color observations are more rare, as the 3-color base map covered Mercury’s northern hemisphere with the highest-resolution color images that are possible.
Date acquired: November 06, 2011
Image Mission Elapsed Time (MET): 229105596, 229105592, 229105588
Image ID: 980566, 980565, 980564
Instrument: Wide Angle Camera (WAC) of the Mercury Dual Imaging System (MDIS)
WAC filters: 9, 7, 6 (996, 748, 433 nanometers) in red, green, and blue
Center Latitude: 25.42°
Center Longitude: 266.8° E
Resolution: 121 meters/pixel
Scale: The bright unnamed crater is about 33 km in diameter (21mi.)
Incidence Angle: 52.3°
Emission Angle: 16.8°
Phase Angle: 69.1°
