Spectacular Color: Mercury
This spectacular color mosaic shows the eastern limb of Mercury as seen by MESSENGER as the spacecraft departed the planet following the mission's first Mercury flyby in January 2008. The colors of this image are not those that would be seen by the human eye but instead convey information about the distribution of different rock types on Mercury's surface. The different rock types result in subtle color variations across all of the color filters. The Caloris basin, visible as a large bright yellow circular area in this image due to its infill of volcanic plains, dominates the northern region. ASU-IPF-3081
Spectacular Color: Mercury
This spectacular color mosaic shows the eastern limb of Mercury as seen by MESSENGER as the spacecraft departed the planet following the mission's first Mercury flyby in January 2008. The colors of this image are not those that would be seen by the human eye but instead convey information about the distribution of different rock types on Mercury's surface. The different rock types result in subtle color variations across all of the color filters. The Caloris basin, visible as a large bright yellow circular area in this image due to its infill of volcanic plains, dominates the northern region. ASU-IPF-3081