Today's APOD features a Region of the Northern Volcanic Plains of Mercury, just to the South/East of the Impact Crater Yoshikawa. As you can see, a Wrinkle Ridge cuts diagonally all the way across the image. The high spatial resolution of this frame reveals a somewhat smoother texture on the Wrinkle Ridge than on the Terrain located to the South/East of it. Date acquired: October, 18th, 2014 This picture (which is an Original NASA - MESSENGER Spacecraft's b/w and Map-Projected image published on the NASA - Planetary Photojournal with the ID n. PIA 18967) has been additionally processed, contrast enhanced, Gamma corrected, magnified to aid the visibility of the details and then colorized in Absolute Natural Colors (such as the colors that a human eye would actually perceive if someone were onboard the NASA - MESSENGER Spacecraft and then looked outside, towards the Surface of Mercury), by using an original technique created - and, in time, dramatically improved - by the Lunar Explorer Italia Team. Different colors, as well as different shades of the same color, mean, among other things, the existence of different Elements (Minerals) present on the Surface of Mercury, each having a different Albedo (---> Reflectivity) and Chemical Composition. |