Featured Image

Darkness Falls

This dramatic image, taken when the sun was a mere ten degrees above the horizon, showcases a small, simple crater atop the rim of a larger, 35 km-diameter unnamed complex crater. The smaller crater's rim shows little sign of erosion or collapse, marking it as a relatively young feature. While Mercury is replete with chains of small craters formed by ejecta thrown out by nearby impacts, this small crater does not appear to belong to such a chain.

Date acquired: May 02, 2012

Image Credit: NASA/Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory/Carnegie Institution of Washington