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APOD
Astronomy Picture of the Day
Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation written by a professional astronomer.
Mercury's Caloris Basin
Explanation: Mercury , the closest planet to the Sun , has a surface with so many craters it resembles the Earth 's Moon . The largest surface feature on Mercury is the Caloris Basin, which resulted from a collision with an asteroid . The basin, which is more that 1000 kilometers across, is visible as the large circular feature at the bottom of the above photograph. Similar features, such as the Mare Orientale , are seen on the Moon. The Caloris Basin gets very hot because it is near the “sub-solar point” - the point on Mercury 's surface that is directly under the Sun when Mercury is closest to the Sun .
| Date | January 20, 1996 |
|---|---|
| Credit | Credit: NASA, JPL, Mariner 10 |
| Authors & editors: | Robert Nemiroff (MTU) & Jerry Bonnell (UMCP) |
| A service of: |
ASD at NASA / GSFC, NASA Science Activation & Michigan Tech. U. |