Planet Mercury

Stereographic Mosaic of Caloris Basin (courtesy NASA)

Stereographic mosaic of Caloris Basin - courtesy NASA

This is a stereographic mosaic of Caloris Basin (Mare Caloris) formed about 4 billion years ago during a massive impact with a gigantic asteroid early in the planet's history. The centre is in the middle left of the picture (just in darkness) and the whole basin is about 1300kms in diameter. It is thought that the resulting strong shock wave travelled through the dense core of the planet to create a broken and jumbled terrain on the opposite side (see next picture).

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