Berlioz crater interior

Berlioz is a crater on Mercury, located near the north pole. Its name was adopted by the International Astronomical Union (IAU) in 2013. It is named for the French composer Hector Berlioz.[1]

The top image shows a view of Berlioz crater, with the regions that host radar-bright material (yellow) and persistent shadows (red) identified. The middle image was acquired a few hours after the top image, using a longer exposure of the WAC broadband filter, and stretched to reveal the details within the shadowed crater. A distinctively darker region is seen on the crater's floor, which corresponds well with the radar-bright and shadowed regions (bottom image). The darker, low-reflectance material is postulated to be composed of frozen, organic-rich, volatile materials that form through a lag deposit process.[2]

References

  1. ^ "Berlioz". Gazetteer of Planetary Nomenclature. NASA. Retrieved 22 May 2020.
  2. ^ BURIED ICE, MESSENGER Featured Image Database
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