In Chesterton's permanent shadow

Filed under explaining science, Mercury, MESSENGER

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Average MDIS mosaic of Chesterton crater (37 km diameter) with: (a) Arecibo radar image in yellow [1]; (b) WAC broadband-filter, 10-ms-exposure image overlain, showing details of the permanently shadowed surface within the crater; (c) both radar (yellow) and WAC broadband filter images.

NASA / JHUAPL / CIW / NAIC, Arecibo Observatory / Nancy Chabot

The WAC broadband filter image was acquired at 185 m/pixel, and the image has been trimmed to exclude pixels exterior to Chesterton or compromised by sunlit portions of the image. The Arecibo radar image was obtained with a range resolution of 1.5 km. From LPSC 2013 abstract #1693.

Original image data dated on or about March 20, 2013