 MESSENGER image. Raden Saleh is the crater with bright rays in the upper left. | |
| Planet | Mercury |
|---|---|
| Coordinates | 2°04′N201°10′W / 2.07°N 201.17°W |
| Quadrangle | Tolstoj |
| Diameter | 23 km |
| Eponym | Raden Saleh |
Raden Saleh is a crater on Mercury. [1] [2] Its name was approved by the IAU in 2008, [3] and it is named after a famous Indonesian painter named Raden Saleh.
Mercury is the first planet from the Sun and the smallest in the Solar System. In English, it is named after the Roman god Mercurius (Mercury), god of commerce and communication, and the messenger of the gods. Mercury is classified as a terrestrial planet, with roughly the same surface gravity as Mars. The surface of Mercury is heavily cratered, as a result of countless impact events that have accumulated over billions of years. Its largest crater, Caloris Planitia, has a diameter of 1,550 km (960 mi) and one-third the diameter of the planet. Similarly to the Earth's Moon, Mercury's surface displays an expansive rupes system generated from thrust faults and bright ray systems formed by impact event remnants.
The exploration of Mercury has a minor role in the space interests of the world. It is the least explored inner planet. As of 2015, the Mariner 10 and MESSENGER missions have been the only missions that have made close observations of Mercury. MESSENGER made three flybys before entering orbit around Mercury. A third mission to Mercury, BepiColombo, a joint mission between the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) and the European Space Agency, is to include two probes. MESSENGER and BepiColombo are intended to gather complementary data to help scientists understand many of the mysteries discovered by Mariner 10's flybys.
Lermontov is an impact crater on the planet Mercury. The crater is named after Mikhail Yuryevich Lermontov, a 19th-century Russian poet. The name was approved by the International Astronomical Union in 1976.
Kuiper is a moderate-size crater with a central peak cluster located at 11.35°S 31.23°W on Mercury. It is 62 kilometers in diameter and was named after Dutch-American astronomer Gerard Kuiper in 1976. It is one of only 2 Mercurian craters which are named not after artists, and one of very few cases when the same name is used for 3 craters. Gerard Kuiper, being a leader of American planetary science, died shortly before the first images of Mercurian surface were made.
The Pantheon Fossae are a radial set of troughs in a region in the middle of Caloris Basin on Mercury. They appear to be a set of graben formed by extensional faults, with a 40 km crater located near the center of the pattern. The exact origin of this pattern of troughs is not currently known. The feature was nicknamed "the Spider" before receiving its official name.
Xiao Zhao crater is small in comparison with many other craters on Mercury. However, Xiao Zhao's long bright rays make it a readily visible feature. The fresh, bright rays, which were created by material ejected outward during the impact event that formed the crater, indicate that Xiao Zhao is a relatively young crater on Mercury's surface.
Verdi is an impact crater on the planet Mercury. It was named after Italian Romantic composer Giuseppe Verdi (1813–1901) in 1979, as recognized by the International Astronomical Union. The crater's extensive ejecta blanket and secondary crater field are superposed on plains materials and older craters.
Navoi is a crater on Mercury. It contains uncommon reddish material that indicates a different rock composition from its surroundings. Navoi also appears to have an irregularly shaped depression in its center. Such depressions have been seen elsewhere on Mercury, including within Praxiteles crater, and may indicate past volcanic activity.
Hovnatanian is a crater on Mercury. Its “butterfly” pattern of ejecta rays were created by an impact at an even lower angle than that which formed neighboring Qi Baishi crater. From the "butterfly" pattern of rays, the Hovnatanian impactor was travelling either north-to-south or south-to-north prior to hitting Mercury's surface. Hovnatanian lies to the west of Tir Planitia.
Abedin is a crater on Mercury. It was named after the Bangladeshi artist Zainul Abedin by the IAU in 2009.
Berkel is a crater on the planet Mercury. Its name was approved by the IAU on July 9, 2009. It was named after the modernist painter Sabri Berkel.
Munkácsy, named after Mihály Munkácsy, is a crater on Mercury. Munkácsy originally had a double-ring basin structure, but most of the inner ring was buried when the basin was flooded with volcanic lava. Only a few remnants of the ring poke up through the lava, although low ridges in the lava seem to trace out much of the rest of the ring's circumference. Munkácsy is one of 110 peak ring basins on Mercury.
Eastman is a crater on Mercury first seen by MESSENGER during the mission's first Mercury flyby. Eastman exhibits some features characteristic of a fresh, relatively young crater. The walls of Eastman have clearly visible terraces, and the central peak structure is well preserved. Eastman is located near Xiao Zhao crater.
Beckett is a pit-floored crater on Mercury, which was discovered in January 2008 during the first flyby of the planet by the MESSENGER spacecraft. The crater was named in November 2008 by the IAU.
Scarlatti is a pit-floored crater on Mercury, which was discovered in 1974 by the Mariner 10 spacecraft. It has a prominent peak ring, and it is one of 110 peak ring basins on Mercury. The crater floor is covered by the smooth plains material. The crater displays an arcuate collapse feature along the northeastern peak ring. The size of the pit, which was first noticed in MESSENGER images obtained in January 2008, is 38 × 12 km. Such a feature may have resulted from collapse of a magma chamber underlying the central peak ring complex of the crater. The collapse feature is an analog of Earth's volcanic calderas. Scarlatti is thought to have the same age as the Caloris basin.
Copland is an impact crater on Mercury. Its floor is flooded with volcanic smooth plains material, which could be related to the activity that formed the nearby bright vent known as Nathair Facula.
Calvino is a crater on Mercury. Its name was adopted by the IAU in 2016, after the Italian writer Italo Calvino.
Derain is a crater on Mercury named after André Derain, a French artist, painter, sculptor and co-founder of Fauvism with Henri Matisse. It has uncommonly dark material within and surrounding the crater. The material is darker than the neighboring terrain such that this crater is easily identified even in a distant global image of Mercury. The dark halo may be material with a mineralogical composition different from the majority of Mercury's visible surface. Craters with similar dark material on or near their rims were seen on the floor of the Caloris basin during MESSENGER’s first flyby.
Matabei is an impact crater on Mercury. It has a set of dark rays. Dark rays are rare on Mercury, but other occurrences have been identified, such as at Mozart crater. Mozart crater is interpreted to have excavated dark material from depth during the impact event, creating dark streamers. The dark rays from Matabei may have a similar origin.
Inter-crater plains on Mercury are a land-form consisting of plains between craters on Mercury.
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