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Tryggvadóttir (crater)

Coordinates: 89°33′N 171°34′W / 89.55°N 171.56°W / 89.55; -171.56
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Tryggvadóttir
MESSENGER image, with Tryggvadóttir in lower left and Tolkien at center
PlanetMercury
Coordinates89°33′N 171°34′W / 89.55°N 171.56°W / 89.55; -171.56
QuadrangleBorealis
Diameter31 km
EponymNína Tryggvadóttir

Tryggvadóttir is a crater on Mercury. The north pole of Mercury is located next to its northern rim. It was named by the IAU in 2012 after the Icelandic artist Nína Tryggvadóttir.[1]

All but the rim of the crater is in permanent shadow. S band radar data from the Arecibo Observatory collected between 1999 and 2005 indicates a radar-bright area covering the entire floor of Tryggvadóttir, which is probably indicative of a water ice deposit.[2][3][4]

Radar-bright deposits near the north pole. Tryggvadóttir is above left of center.

Tryggvadóttir is adjacent to the larger Tolkien crater and to Chesterton crater.

References

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  1. ^ "Tryggvadóttir (crater)". Gazetteer of Planetary Nomenclature. USGS Astrogeology Research Program.
  2. ^ Chabot, N. L., D. J. Lawrence, G. A. Neumann, W. C. Feldman, and D. A. Paige, 2018. Mercury's Polar Deposits. In Mercury: The View After MESSENGER edited by Sean C. Solomon, Larry R. Nittler, and Brian J. Anderson. Cambridge Planetary Science. Chapter 13, Figure 13.2.
  3. ^ PIA19411: Water Ice on Mercury, NASA/Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory/Carnegie Institution of Washington
  4. ^ John K. Harmon, Martin A. Slade, Melissa S. Rice, 2011. Radar imagery of Mercury’s putative polar ice: 1999–2005 Arecibo results. Icarus, 211, p37-50. doi.org/10.1016/j.icarus.2010.08.007