Degas is a rayed crater on Mercury at latitude 37.5 N, longitude 127 W. Its diameter is 54 kilometres (34 mi). It was named after the French impressionist painter Edgar Degas in 1979. The rays consist of light colored material blasted out during the crater's formation. Craters older than Degas are covered by the ray material, while younger craters are seen superimposed on the rays. Degas forms a crater pair with Brontë to the north. Both lie near the center of Sobkou Planitia.
Haystack Catena is a catena on Mercury. It superficially resembles a graben but is a chain of overlapping secondary craters. It is named after Haystack Observatory, and was originally named Haystack Vallis when it was imaged by Mariner 10 in 1974, but the name was changed in 2013 to better reflect its origin. It is approximately 274 km long. It is located near the center of the Kuiper quadrangle, and it is radial to a large, unnamed crater that is Tolstojan in age.
Michelangelo is a 230 km diameter impact basin in the Michelangelo quadrangle of Mercury, which is named after this crater. The crater itself was named by the IAU in 1979 after the Italian painter, sculptor and architect Michelangelo.
Homer is a crater on Mercury. It is one of 110 peak ring basins on Mercury. It is Tolstojan in age.
Bashō is a crater on Mercury named after Matsuo Bashō, a 17th-century Japanese writer. Bashō crater is only 74.62 kilometers (46.37 mi) in diameter, but is a prominent feature on Mercury's surface, due to its bright rays. Photographs from NASA's Mariner 10 and MESSENGER spacecraft show a curious halo of dark material around the crater. The dark material is typically referred to as low-reflectance material (LRM) and there is evidence that it is caused by graphite.
Titian is an impact crater on the planet Mercury. It was named by the IAU in 1976.
Munkácsy, named after Mihály Munkácsy, is a crater on Mercury. Munkácsy originally had a double-ring basin structure, but most of the inner ring was buried when the basin was flooded with volcanic lava. Only a few remnants of the ring poke up through the lava, although low ridges in the lava seem to trace out much of the rest of the ring's circumference. Munkácsy is one of 110 peak ring basins on Mercury.
Debussy is a rayed impact crater on Mercury, which was discovered in 1969 by low resolution ground-based radar observations obtained by the Goldstone Observatory. Later in 1990–2005 it was imaged in more detail by the Arecibo Observatory. The crater was initially known as the feature A. The bright appearance of rays in the radar images indicates that the crater is geologically young, because fresh and rough surfaces of young impact craters are good scatterers of radio waves.
Derain is a crater on Mercury named after André Derain, a French artist, painter, sculptor and co-founder of Fauvism with Henri Matisse. It has uncommonly dark material within and surrounding the crater. The material is darker than the neighboring terrain such that this crater is easily identified even in a distant global image of Mercury. The dark halo may be material with a mineralogical composition different from the majority of Mercury's visible surface. Craters with similar dark material on or near their rims were seen on the floor of the Caloris basin during MESSENGER’s first flyby.
Ailey is a crater on Mercury. It has a diameter of 21 kilometers. Its name was adopted by the International Astronomical Union (IAU) in on April 24, 2012. Ailey is named for the American dancer and choreographer Alvin Ailey, who lived from 1931 to 1989.
Balzac is a crater on Mercury. Its name was adopted by the International Astronomical Union in 1976. Balzac is named for the French writer Honoré de Balzac, who lived from 1799 to 1850. The crater was first imaged by Mariner 10 in 1974.
Holst is a crater on Mercury. Its name was adopted by the International Astronomical Union (IAU) on April 24, 2012.
Tolkien is one of the northernmost craters on Mercury, located in the Borealis quadrangle at 88.82 N, 211.08 W. It is 50 km in diameter. It was named after the South African born British writer J. R. R. Tolkien. The name was approved by IAU's Working Group for Planetary System Nomenclature on August 6, 2012. Since Tolkien is very close to the north pole, and Mercury has almost no axial tilt, Tolkien receives very little sunlight. S band radar data from the Arecibo Observatory collected between 1999 and 2005 indicates a radar-bright area covers the entire floor of Tolkien, which is probably indicative of a water ice deposit.
Caravaggio is a large crater on Mercury. The crater was named after the Italian painter Caravaggio by the IAU in 2013.
Sanai is a large, ancient crater on Mercury. Its name was adopted by the International Astronomical Union in 2014, after the Persian poet, Sanai of Ghazna.
Aneirin is a crater on Mercury. It has a diameter of 467 kilometers. Its name was adopted by the International Astronomical Union (IAU) on June 13, 2014. Aneirin is named for the Welsh poet Aneirin. Prior to naming, the crater was referred to as b37. It is Tolstojan in age.
Vonnegut is a crater on Mercury, near the north pole. It was named by the IAU in 2017 after the American author Kurt Vonnegut. Part of Vonnegut's 1959 novel The Sirens of Titan takes place on Mercury. The crater was referred to as e5 in scientific literature prior to naming.
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.
Chesterton is a crater on Mercury, near the north pole. Its name was adopted by the International Astronomical Union in 2012, after the English author G. K. Chesterton.
Wren is a crater on Mercury. It has a diameter of 204 kilometres. Its name was adopted by the International Astronomical Union (IAU) in 1979. Wren is named for English architect Christopher Wren.
The rays of Hokusai crater (near central horizon) extend across much of the planet
The ray system close to the crater
MESSENGER WAC image
Mosaic of MESSENGER NAC images
Another mosaic of the interior
