Explanation:
What are those unusual features on planet Mercury?
The slightly bluish tinge of features dubbed hollows has been exaggerated on the above image by the robotic
MESSENGER spacecraft currently
orbiting Mercury.
The rounded depressions appear different than impact craters and nothing like them has been noted on
Earth's Moon or anywhere else in the
Solar System.
The above image is a section of the floor of
Raditladi
impact basin about 40 kilometers wide that includes the mountains of the central peak.
One progenitor hypothesis is that the hollows formed from the
sublimation of
material exposed
and heated during the violent impact that created the
Raditladi basin.
NASA's MESSENGER is the first spacecraft ever to orbit Mercury, and is currently scheduled to explore the Solar System's innermost planet into 2013.
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