image: This MESSENGER image of Mercury's surface is a spectacular view of "hollows," depressions that may have formed by the removal of volatile-containing material exposed within impact craters. Shown is an interior portion of the floor and peak-ring mountains of the Raditladi impact basin. The individual frames in the mosaic are about 20 km wide. The image was created by merging high-resolution monochrome images from MESSENGER's Narrow Angle Camera with a lower-resolution enhanced-color image obtained by the Wide Angle Camera. This image relates to an article that appeared in the Sept. 30, 2011, issue of Science, published by AAAS. The study, by Dr. D.T. Blewett of Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory in Laurel, Md., and colleagues was titled, "Hollows on Mercury: MESSENGER Evidence for Geologically Recent Volatile-Related Activity." view more
Credit: Image Courtesy of NASA/Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory/Carnegie Institution of Washington.