Craters on Mercury range in diameter from small bowl-shaped craters to multi-ringed impact basins hundreds of kilometers across. They appear in all states of degradation, from relatively fresh rayed-craters, to highly degraded crater remnants.

2025年1月17日 · Mercury’s surface resembles that of Earth’s Moon, scarred by many impact craters resulting from collisions with meteoroids and comets. Craters and features on Mercury are named after famous deceased artists, musicians, or authors, including children’s author Dr. Seuss and dance pioneer Alvin Ailey.

6 天之前 · Craters on Mercury larger than about 100 km (60 miles) in diameter begin to show features indicative of a transition to the “bull’s-eye” form that is the hallmark of the largest impact basins. These latter structures, called multiring basins and measuring 300 km (200 miles) or more across, are products of the most-energetic impacts.

2023年5月17日 · Crater Formation on Mercury. Mercury has been bombarded with space debris for billions of years, creating numerous craters on its surface. However, there are some significant differences between craters on Mercury compared to those found on …

2023年10月17日 · One possible clue to their formation is that many of the hollows are associated with central mounds or mountains inside Mercury’s impact craters. These so-called “peak rings” are thought to be made of material forced up from the depths by an impact that formed the crater.

Failure to find “vulcanoids” and satellites of Mercury suggests that such bodies played a negligible role in cratering Mercury. We describe an absolute cratering chronology for Mercury’s geological evolution as well as its uncertainties.

Topographic data measured from the Mercury Laser Altimeter (MLA) and the Mercury Dual Imaging System (MDIS) aboard the MESSENGER spacecraft were used for investigations of the relationship between depth and diameter for impact craters on Mercury.

The lab exercises in Part I utilize movies of impact experiments to demonstrate the formation and structure of impact craters. The diversity of crater morphologies is illustrated by images of craters.

What These Craters Mean for Scientists By studying all effects of Mercury’s impact history, we can discern eras of impacting, possible sources of impacting, (i.e. asteroid belts, comets, etc…), and ascertain the historical records of Mercury through observation, data collection and analysis.

From images obtained by the MESSENGER spacecraft during its first and second flyby of Mercury, we have identified numerous pit craters on the floors of impact craters. Pit craters are rimless depressions that are interpreted to have formed by endogenic processes.