Eminescu crater on Mercury - new floor cavities?

November 19, 2012 Eminescu crater.
Credit: Sonda Messenger/NASA
Narrow Angle Camera (NAC) of the Mercury Dual Imaging System (MDIS)

About Eminescu's holes (125 km), the above picture gives new ideas. Although most holes are located on and around the central peak, if you look carefully you will see that there are small holes located on the top right of the image. These hollows are younger than the ones on central peaks and floor of Eminescu? Are there currently forming pits on Eminescu?
This is the question that scientists ask themselves by studying photos sent by NASA's Messenger probe. I studied the picture above, but I do not see those holes, pits, as long as those who have made the study did not marked the discussed area with an arrow or something, for those who read, to locate it more clearly, or an old photo and the new one, to see a difference.

To solve the problem, I have drawn two arrows for NASA, on the photo below, to the area in which I think they referred to in their article.


Credit: NASA / Messenger July 23, 2012

It is believed that hollows are formed by the solar wind which "shoot" constantly Mercury's surface, removing volatile materials out of landfills, from the crust was left exposed by the impact.


I find more interesting the albedo on and around central peaks, which at first glance would seem that there is snow. Is the crust chemically differentiated more than previously thought?


Eminescu is "middle age", a kind of equivalent of the Moon's Eartosthenian era without distinctive color or albedo with the exception of the features on and around the ring shaped central peaks.




On December 5, 2011, MESSENGER probe, in orbit around Mercury, sent this image of the central peaks of crater Eminescu.

The crater was just recently named in the honor of Mihai Eminescu, a devoted and influential poet who is considered the national poet in Romania, and considered the "godfather" of modern Romanian language. For that I am very proud, because I'm a romanian too.

Posted in: Astronomy news