Caloris Basin – in Color!

Credit: NASA, Posted on: Sunday, 31 August 2008, 05:32 CDT Download full size image

This false-color image of Mercury, recently published in Science magazine, shows the great Caloris impact basin, visible in this image as a large, circular, orange feature in the center of the picture. The contrast between the colors of the Caloris basin floor and those of the surrounding plains indicate that the composition of Mercury’s surface is variable. Many additional geological features with intriguing color signatures can be identified in this image. For example, the bright orange spots just inside the rim of Caloris basin are thought to mark the location of volcanic features, such as the volcano shown in this previously released Narrow Angle Camera (NAC) image. MESSENGER Science Team members are studying these regional color variations in detail, to determine the different mineral compositions of Mercury’s surface and to understand the geologic processes that have acted on it. Images taken through the 11 different WAC color filters were used to create this false-color image. The 11 different color images were compared and contrasted using statistical methods to isolate and enhance subtle color differences on Mercury’s surface.

Credit: Image produced by NASA/Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory/Arizona State niversity/Carnegie Institution of Washington. Image reproduced courtesy of Science/AAAS.

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