This image, taken with the Narrow Angle Camera (NAC), shows a
large crater in Mercury's southern hemisphere that has not yet
been assigned a name. The International Astronomical Union has
established a set of rules which govern the naming of features
on planets and their moons. This crater eventually will be named
for a deceased artist, musician, painter or author who has made
outstanding contributions to his or her field and who has been
considered a historically significant figure for at least 50
years. This image was acquired as part of MDIS's high-resolution
surface morphology base map. The surface morphology base map
will cover more than 90% of Mercury's surface with an average
resolution of 250 meters/pixel (0.16 miles/pixel or 820
feet/pixel). Images acquired for the surface morphology base map
typically have off-vertical Sun angles (i.e., high incidence
angles) and visible shadows so as to reveal clearly the
topographic form of geologic features. The MESSENGER spacecraft
is the first ever to orbit the