The MESSENGER spacecraft captured an image, which gives us a close-up look at the crater Kalidasa, named for the renowned classical Sanskrit writer Kālidāsa, according to the mission website.
It is likely that after Kalidasa crater formed, a smaller impact created a second crater and destroyed part of Kalidasa’s central peak. The low elevation areas in both craters were subsequently flooded with volcanic material, creating smooth plains on which light cratering has continued.
Kalidasa Crater (NASA / Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory / Carnegie Institution of Washington)
Kalidasa crater is about 105 km (65 miles) in diameter.
This image was acquired as part of Mercury Dual Imaging System’s high-resolution stereo base map. The stereo base map is used in combination with the surface morphology base map to create high-resolution stereo views of Mercury’s surface, with an average resolution of 250 meters/pixel or better.
During MESSENGER’s one-year mission, the surface morphology base map is acquired during the first 176 days, and the second 176 days are used to acquire the complementary stereo base map, which includes this image.
