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False color views of Mercury from MESSENGER's second flyby

False color views of Mercury from MESSENGER's second flyby
False color views of Mercury from MESSENGER's second flyby To emphasize subtle color variations, statistical methods were applied to the 11-filter sets of images of Mercury captured by MESSENGER's wide angle camera as it departed from its second flyby on October 6, 2008. The resulting false-color maps don't bear much relation to what the human eye would see, but the color variations reflect real differences among the spectral qualities of Mercury's surface materials. Fresh impact craters show up as light blue or yellow splashes with cyan rays. Yellow-orange spots (arrow, upper left) tend to have diffuse edges and are often associated not with craters but with irregular pits, suggesting that they may be a result of explosive volcanic eruptions -- eruptions of material that contain high proportions of gases. Blue deposits (arrow, lower right) are associated with some but not all impact craters, suggesting the presence of some unusual material discontinuously present beneath Mercury's surface. The white rectangle in the upper image identifies the location of the lower image. NASA / JHUAPL / CIW