Inter-crater plains on Mercury

Inter-crater plains on Mercury are a land-form consisting of plains between craters on Mercury.

Inter-crater plains and heavily cratered terrain typical of much of Mercury outside the area affected by the formation of the Caloris Basin. Abundant shallow elongate craters and crater chains are present on the plains. This image, taken during the first mission of Mariner 10, shows a large tract of inter-crater plains centered at 3° N, 20° W. The scarp running down the middle of the image, Santa Maria Rupes cuts through both the plains and large craters. The scene is 200 km across; north is the top.

Of the eight planets in the Solar System, Mercury is the smallest and closest to the Sun. The surface of this planet is similar to the Moon in that it shows characteristics of heavy cratering and plains formed through volcanic eruptions on the surface. These features indicate that Mercury has been geologically inactive for billions of years. Knowledge of Mercury's geology was initially quite limited because observations have only been through the Mariner 10 flyby in 1975 and observations from Earth. The MESSENGER (an acronym of MErcury Surface, Space ENvironment, GEochemistry, and Ranging) mission of 2004 was a robotic NASA spacecraft orbiting the planet, the first spacecraft ever to do so.[1] The data provided by MESSENGER has revealed a geologically complex planet.[2]

  1. ^ Wall, Mike (March 17, 2011). "NASA spacecraft now circling Mercury - a first". NBC News. Archived from the original on April 15, 2014. Retrieved 18 May 2014.
  2. ^ Lakdawalla, Emily (July 3, 2008). "MESSENGER Scientists 'Astonished' to Find Water in Mercury's Thin Atmosphere". The Planetary Society. Archived from the original on 2016-09-02. Retrieved 2014-05-18.