Fact Sheet
Hidden Face
The Messenger spacecraft snapped this image of a side of Mercury never before seen at close range when it flew past the planet on January 14. The only other craft to visit Mercury, Mariner 10, saw the same hemisphere of Mercury during each of its three encounters. The other hemisphere had been seen only by telescopes on Earth, which reveal almost no detail. This image, shot at a distance of 17,000 miles (27,000 km), shows features as small as about six miles (10 km) in diameter. Prominent features include several young impact craters, which look bright white and are surrounded by bright "rays" of material ejected from the impact sites. A "bulls-eye" crater, which consists of two concentric rings, is at upper left, near the line dividing day from night. [NASA/JHU APL/CIW]
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