English: Date acquired: March 15, 2012

Image Mission Elapsed Time (MET): 240290904, 240290900, 240290896 Image ID: 1519152, 1519151, 1519150 Instrument: Wide Angle Camera (WAC) of the Mercury Dual Imaging System (MDIS) WAC filters: 9, 7, 6 (996, 748, 433 nanometers) in red, green, and blue Center Latitude: 28.60° Center Longitude: 17.71° E Resolution: 251 meters/pixel Scale: Hodgkins crater (center) is approximately 18 km (11 miles) in diameter Incidence Angle: 35.8° Emission Angle: 12.6° Phase Angle: 48.4°

Of Interest: We recently got a high-resolution look at Hodgkins crater. Today's featured image is a great example of how MDIS's two cameras complement each other: the NAC (narrow-angle camera) provides the high resolution and the WAC provides a lower resolution view in color. Usually the ejecta of fresh craters is relatively blue, but like Kuiper crater, Hodgkins continuous ejecta blanket is redder. In this case, it appears that Hodgkins has exposed a compositionally distinct material.

This image was acquired as a high-resolution targeted color observation. Targeted color observations are images of a small area on Mercury's surface at resolutions higher than the 1-kilometer/pixel 8-color base map. During MESSENGER's one-year primary mission, hundreds of targeted color observations were obtained. During MESSENGER's extended mission, high-resolution targeted color observations are more rare, as the 3-color base map is covering Mercury's northern hemisphere with the highest-resolution color images that are possible.