This is an image of the surface of Mercury.
Click on image for full size
NASA
Surface of Mercury
Images of the surface of Mercury obtained by
Mariner 10
showed a planet covered with craters, looking very much like the
Earth's Moon. During its three passes by the planet, Mariner 10
took pictures of about half the surface of the planet, so we don't
know what the rest of the surface looks like. Mercury's
impact craters
were made early in the evolution of the solar system, nearly 4
billion years ago, by meteorites which hit the surface. The
relatively smooth plains between craters indicates that at one
point the surface was probably volcanic, as lava flows filled in
after the impacts of large objects. It appears that these plains
and heavily cratered regions are not uniformly scattered around
the surface. Instead, craters are concentrated on one part of the
planet while plains dominate another part.
Wrinkle ridges
or "rupes", a few km across and hundreds of km long, are also common
on the surface. These features, which can reach several km in height,
were probably created as the interior of the planet cooled and shrunk,
causing the surface to collapse in and form ridges. Major
surface features include ridges, plains, and numerous large craters, the
largest (about 800 mi or 1300 km across) named the
Caloris Basin.
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