Degas is a
rayed crater
A crater is a landform consisting of a hole or depression (geology), depression on a planetary surface, usually caused either by an object hitting the surface, or by geological activity on the planet. A crater has classically been described ...
on
Mercury at latitude 37.5 N, longitude 127 W. Its diameter is . It was named after the French impressionist painter
Edgar Degas
Edgar Degas (, ; born Hilaire-Germain-Edgar De Gas, ; 19 July 183427 September 1917) was a French Impressionist artist famous for his pastel drawings and oil paintings.
Degas also produced bronze sculptures, prints, and drawings. Degas is e ...
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.
The crater's floor contains cracks that formed as the pool of
impact melt
Impact may refer to:
* Impact (mechanics), a large force or mechanical shock over a short period of time
* Impact, Texas, a town in Taylor County, Texas, US
Science and technology
* Impact crater, a meteor crater caused by an impact event
* Imp ...
cooled and shrank. The high-reflectance material on the walls and in the central portion of the crater probably has a composition distinct from that of the crater floor and surroundings. The illumination conditions and down-slope movement of eroded material exposing fresh rock also contribute to the bright appearance. The floor of Degas exposed low-reflectance material (LRM).
Degas is one of the largest craters of the
Kuiperian system on Mercury. The largest is
Bartók crater.
[Denevi, B. W., Ernst, C. M., Prockter, L. M., and Robinson, M. S., 2018. The Geologic History of Mercury. In ''Mercury: The View After ]MESSENGER
Messenger, Messengers, The Messenger or The Messengers may refer to:
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* Courier, a person or company that delivers messages, packages, or mail
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* M ...
'' edited by Sean C. Solomon, Larry R. Nittler, and Brian J. Anderson. Cambridge Planetary Science. Chapter 6, Table 6.4.
Views
File:Mariner 10 image 0000271.png, ''Mariner 10
''Mariner 10'' was an American Robotic spacecraft, robotic space probe launched by NASA on 3 November 1973, to fly by the planets Mercury (planet), Mercury and Venus. It was the first spacecraft to perform flybys of multiple planets.
''Marin ...
'' image
File:Degas crater MESSENGER NAC mosaic.png, MESSENGER mosaic
File:Degas crater MESSENGER NAC sequence.jpg, Sequence of adjacent but non-overlapping images acquired by MESSENGER NAC of the interior of Degas. All images are oblique and looking northwest. The upper left three images show the central peak. The upper right and lower left images show the fractured crater floor. The two central bottom images show terraces and flow structures on the northern slope of the crater wall. The lower right image shows the crater rim. Distance across foreground in each image is approximately 2.5 km.
References
External links
*
Impact craters on Mercury
{{Mercury-crater-stub