This colorful scene of Tyagaraja crater and its surroundings contains many different types of material. The very bright areas on the floor of the crater are hollows, and are so much brighter than the surrounding areas that they appear saturated in this particular image (whose "stretch" optimizes the appearance of the darker material). The reddish s
This colorful scene of Tyagaraja crater and its surroundings contains many different types of material. The very bright areas on the floor of the crater are hollows, and are so much brighter than the surrounding areas that they appear saturated in this particular image (whose “stretch” optimizes the appearance of the darker material). The reddish spot at the center of the crater is likely material surrounding a pyroclastic vent. The dark material that appears bluish in this color composite is low reflectance material (LRM). Areas of different colors on Mercury generally correspond to differences in composition.
Date acquired: April 25, 2013Image Credit: NASA/Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics