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NASA's Perseverance Mars rover used its Mastcam-Z camera to capture Mercury – seen as a tiny speck – passing in…

Description The day before the MESSENGER spacecraft impacted the surface of Mercury, the best prediction for the location and time…

In this perspective view, NASA's MESSENGER spacecraft looked northwest over the Caloris Basin, a depression about 1500 km in diameter…

On March 18, 2011, NASA's MESSENGER made history by becoming the first spacecraft ever to orbit Mercury. Eleven days later,…

This image from NASA's MESSENGER spacecraft is the last one acquired and transmitted back to Earth by the mission. The…

This image, acquired yesterday, is one of NASA's MESSENGER's last. Today, April 30, 2015, the spacecraft will complete its highly…

The large, 400-kilometer-diameter (250-mile-diameter), impact basin Shakespeare occupies the bottom left quarter of this image from NASA's MESSENGER spacecraft.

These graphics show the current best prediction of the location and time of NASA's MESSENGER's impact on Mercury's surface. These…

This image from MESSENGER spacecraft covers a small area located about 115 km south of the center of Mansart crater.

Five previously unnamed craters on Mercury now have names. Shown here are Carolan, Enheduanna, Karsh, Kulthum, and Rivera as seen…

Though NASA's MESSENGER's days are numbered, the spacecraft will continue to acquire new data sets and transmit them back to…

This image is located just inside the southern rim of Chong Chol crater and was obtained on April 25, 2015,…

At approximately 1.1 meters/pixel, this image is among the highest-resolution views MESSENGER has ever taken of the surface of Mercury.

This image from NASA's MESSENGER spacecraft shows a small portion of the interior of Scarlatti basin. The image is located…

The surface in this scene captured by NASA's MESSENGER spacecraft has been pummeled by secondary craters, possibly from the impact…

As NASA's MESSENGER enters its final days, we are getting our last looks at some of our favorite features. Hollows,…

NASA's MESSENGER is again sending images back to Earth after the spacecraft emerged from superior solar conjunction, when communication is…

This mosaic of oblique images from NASA's MESSENGER spacecraft highlights the spectacular interior of Abedin crater. The crater floor is…

This image from NASA's MESSENGER spacecraft provides a perspective view of the center portion of Carnegie Rupes, a large tectonic…

Measurements from NASA's MESSENGER's MLA instrument during the spacecraft's greater than four-year orbital mission have mapped the topography of Mercury's…

Measurements from NASA's MESSENGER's MLA instrument during the spacecraft's greater than four-year orbital mission have mapped the topography of Mercury's…

The MASCS instrument onboard NASA's MESSENGER spacecraft was designed to study both the exosphere and surface of Mercury in order…

This image from NASA's MESSENGER spacecraft is stitched together from thousands of observations made over the past 4 years by…

During NASA's MESSENGER's four-year orbital mission, the spacecraft's X-Ray Spectrometer (XRS) instrument mapped out the chemical composition of Mercury and…

This view from NASA's MESSENGER spacecraft is an orthographic projection of Mercury's south polar region, colored by an illumination map;…

Mercury's northern region is dominated by expansive smooth plains, created by huge amounts of volcanic material flooding across Mercury's surface…

During the first year of NASA's MESSENGER's orbital mission, the spacecraft's GRS instrument measured the elemental composition of Mercury's surface…

This image mosaic from NASA's MESSENGER spacecraft shows an unnamed ridge in the northern volcanic plains of Mercury. Wrinkle ridges…

In this enhanced color view from NASA's MESSENGER spacecraft of the peak-ring basin Derain, the different colors accentuate the different…

This orthographic projection view from NASA's MESSENGER spacecraft provides a look at Mercury's north polar region. The yellow regions in…

One of the most captivating views acquired during NASA's MESSENGER's first Mercury flyby was of the crater Apollodorus surrounded by…

This mosaic from NASA's MESSENGER spacecraft provides a detailed view of the features and structures associated with the peak-ring basin…

Hokusai crater's rays extend across much of the planet, but its interior is spectacular in its own right. This series…

Description Analysis of radio tracking data have enabled maps of the gravity field of Mercury to be derived. In this…

Description The graphic shown here is more than just an artistic representation of Mercury’s calcium exosphere – it is the…

This image from NASA's MESSENGER spacecraft shows the large Rustaveli basin on the right portion of the view. Named in…

This series of oblique images captured by NASA's MESSENGER spacecraft highlight the wall and exterior of the beautiful volcanic vent…

Carnegie Rupes makes a dramatic sight in this large image mosaic taken by NASA's MESSENGER spacecraft. The giant lobate scarp…

Lessing crater can be seen in the lower left of this image captured by NASA's MESSENGER spacecraft. Instead of the…

Description This small ghost crater lies in Mercury’s northern volcanic plains. At some point after its formation, lava completely filled…

This is one of the earliest images of Mercury returned by NASA's MESSENGER spacecraft. It was taken in January 2008.

Mercury's hollows are among its most distinctive and unusual surface features. In this stunning view from NASA's MESSENGER spacecraft, we…

NASA's MESSENGER spacecraft shows that Mercury's surface is scarred by abundant tectonic deformation, the vast majority of which is due…

Description Another look at the fresh impact crater seen here is revealed in this image. This time the image is…

Description The inside of this young, rayed impact crater is seen at a resolution of just over five meters per…

Small graben, narrow linear troughs, have been found associated with small scarps (bottom left, white arrows) on Mercury and the…

This image, acquired at 24 m/pixel by NASA's MESSENGER spacecraft, is the highest resolution that has been obtained for any…

This image from NASA's MESSENGER spacecraft shows the wall of a volcanic vent located between the Rachmaninoff basin and Copland…

This view captured by NASA's MESSENGER spacecraft shows Mercury's north polar region, colored by the maximum biannual surface temperature, which…

This high-resolution view from NASA's MESSENGER spacecraft shows hollows on the southwestern peak ring of the Scarlatti basin. The hollows…

Images obtained from NASA's MESSENGER have revealed a population of small fault scarps (white arrows) that can be more than…

NASA's MESSENGER's low-altitude campaign has enabled imaging of Fuller crater (named after American architect Buckminster Fuller) in greater detail than…

Description Enterprise Rupes, (indicated here with white arrows) about 1000 km long and with over 3 km of relief, is…

Maps of magnesium/silicon (left) and thermal neutron absorption (right) across Mercury's surface (red indicates high values, blue low) are shown…

The large degraded impact crater near the center is Coleridge. It has been pummeled by later impacts, as seen by…

This view captured by NASA's MESSENGER spacecraft shows two craters in an area of smooth plains.

NASA's MESSENGER reveals that Impact crater floors are commonly flat and relatively smooth, the result of the cooling and solidification…

Portions of this volcanic vent complex to the northeast of Rachmaninoff basin are blanketed in a layer of very fine-grained…

Description Mercury’s surface is riven by large tectonic structures that formed when the planet’s interior cooled and contracted. One of…

The volcanic vent northeast of Rachmaninoff basin is framed perfectly in this image captured by NASA's MESSENGER spacecraft.

This mosaic from NASA's MESSENGER of Caloris basin is an enhanced-color composite overlain on a monochrome mosaic. It is made…

This mosaic from NASA's MESSENGER spacecraft of the mighty Caloris basin, Mercury's youngest large impact basin. Caloris has been filled…

This image from NASA's MESSENGER spacecraft features a color view of the peak-ringed crater Aksakov. The inner ring of Aksakov…

Description From a distance, this hummocky terrain a few hundred km south of the boundary of Mercury’s northern plains appears…

This image captured by NASA's MESSENGER spacecraft features a color view of the southern pole of Mercury. About midway down…

The region with fewer impact craters in the bottom-right corner of this image from NASA's MESSENGER spacecraft is a small…

On Mercury, craters larger than approximately 10-12 km display a complex morphology, with slump terraces and central peaks, as compared…

The exterior of this unnamed crater on Mercury is in shadow, while the inner wall and terraces bask in the…

Description MESSENGER captured this image as the spacecraft sped roughly 720 km above the surface. The wall of a 45-km-diameter…

In this image from NASA's MESSENGER, Mercury's horizon cuts a striking edge against the stark blackness of space. On the…

Mercury's surface shown here by NASA's MESSENGER is located within a 73-km-diameter crater; the mounds are part of a larger…

Description The center of this image is dominated by Melville crater, named for American writer Herman Melville (1819-1891). Melville (about…

This image from NASA's MESSENGER spacecraft shows the fine texture on the inner wall of an unnamed impact basin 100…

The cliff-like feature crossing this image from NASA's MESSENGER spacecraft from top to bottom is one of Mercury's famed lobate…

Situated high in Mercury's southern hemisphere, NASA's MESSENGER sees Han Kan, a 50-km-diameter impact crater with a well preserved central…

Description This crater is approximately 170 km southwest of the flooded Dali basin, along the rim of an old, mostly…

Description Alver is a large, peak-ring basin in Mercury’s southern hemisphere. This mosaic, made up of three separate images, reveals…

Description Most of this 13.3-km-diameter (8.3-mi.-diameter) crater, located approximately 265 km (165 mi.) northwest of Angkor Vallis, is engulfed in…

Description Navoi crater, located north of the large Caloris basin, shows signs of past volcanic activity. The orange tint in…

Description The striking topography inside of Angkor Vallis is believed to have formed by hot, quick-flowing lavas moving across Mercury’s…

Description Sometimes, it’s really good to get a change in perspective. Today’s image provides that for Mercury’s north polar region.…

Description At the end of each year, it has become a MESSENGER tradition to compile some of the featured images,…

Description This image features another crater that you could name! The bright rays and crisp morphology of the crater walls…

Description This large crater near the center of the image is in need of a name, and you could name…

Description The lower half of this image is dominated by a large, moderately fresh impact crater in Mercury’s southern hemisphere.…

Description The largest impact crater in this color view is Couperin, roughly 85 km (53 mi.) in diameter. Couperin is…

Description Today’s image features a sinuous lobate scarp that snakes across the floor of Sinan crater. Sinan is an older,…

Description This stunning limb view includes the northeastern portion of the Caloris basin in the foreground. Poe crater, a large,…

Description Welcome to Zeami crater! We’ve been here before, because Zeami has a plethora of interesting features – a portion…

Description The MESSENGER spacecraft flies over the surface of Mercury at several kilometers per second. Have you ever wondered what…

Description The rim and shadowed wall of a nondescript crater 25 km (approx. 16 mi.) in diameter, situated within the…

Description Today’s image features a massif southwest of Paestum Vallis and southeast of Timgad Vallis. Though it may look similar…

Description Inside this simple crater, the sun never shines! The view shown here is a mosaic of two images, showing…

Description Today’s image features a region of the northern volcanic plains just to the southeast of the crater Yoshikawa. A…

Description This 3D view, made up of two pairs of stereo images, shows Balanchine crater, which is located inside of…

Description Take a look at Adventure Rupes in 3D! Adventure is a lobate scarp, formed when one block of crust…

Description Want to learn more about the permanent darkness inside the crater from Monday’s Featured Image? Use the Water Ice…

Description Located near Mercury’s north pole, inside this unnamed crater there are locations that are in permanent darkness. Mercury’s axial…

Description The low Sun elevation in this scene emphasizes the topography of Van Eyck crater. The rim of Van Eyck…

Description Hollows on Mercury are sometimes associated with pyroclastic deposits. This association is illustrated here, in this view of the…







