Large Mercurian Crater

This image (FDS 166), acquired during the spacecraft's first encounter with Mercury, features a 140 kilometer diameter crater and its surrounding zone of secondary craters. The narrow width of the rim facies, the prominent subradial secondary crater chains, and grooves are representative of the larger mercurian craters.

The Mariner 10 mission, managed by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory for NASA's Office of Space Science, explored Venus in February 1974 on the way to three encounters with Mercury-in March and September 1974 and in March 1975. The spacecraft took more than 7,000 photos of Mercury, Venus, the Earth and the Moon.