Mearcair Planitia is a large plain on the planet Mercury. The name Mearcair is the Irish and

Scottish Gaelic Scottish Gaelic (, ; Endonym and exonym, endonym: ), also known as Scots Gaelic or simply Gaelic, is a Celtic language native to the Gaels of Scotland. As a member of the Goidelic language, Goidelic branch of Celtic, Scottish Gaelic, alongs ...

word for "Mercury", and the name was approved in 2017. It was first observed in detail by

MESSENGER Messenger, Messengers, The Messenger or The Messengers may refer to: People * Courier, a person or company that delivers messages, packages, or mail * Messenger (surname) * Bicycle messenger, a bicyclist who transports packages through cities * M ...

. It lies between the large crater Raditladi and the ancient

Caloris Caloris Planitia is a plain within a large impact basin on Mercury, informally named Caloris, about in diameter. It is one of the largest impact basins in the Solar System. "Calor" is Latin for "heat" and the basin is so-named because the Sun ...

basin. Mearcair Planitia is one of four named plains that surround the

Caloris basin Caloris Planitia is a plain within a large impact basin on Mercury, informally named Caloris, about in diameter. It is one of the largest impact basins in the Solar System. "Calor" is Latin for "heat" and the basin is so-named because the Su ...

(with Odin Planitia, Stilbon Planitia, and

Tir Planitia Tir Planitia is a large plain on the planet Mercury. The name Tir (تیر) is the Persian word for "Mercury", and the name was approved in 1976. It was first observed in detail by Mariner 10. It lies between the large crater Mozart and the anc ...

). All of these plains are classified as ''smooth'', as opposed to ''intracrater'' plains which have rougher topography. They also contain areas where kilometer-scale knobs protrude above the plains, and these areas are called the Odin Formation. The Odin Formation is interpreted as a mixture of impact melt and blocky basin ejecta, formed by the Caloris impact event.Denevi, B. W., Earnst, C. M., Prockter, L. M., and Robinson, M. S., 2018. The Geologic History of Mercury. In ''Mercury: The View After

'' edited by Sean C. Solomon, Larry R. Nittler, and Brian J. Anderson. Cambridge Planetary Science. Section 6.3.3. The large crater

Kerouac Jean-Louis Lebris de Kérouac (; March 12, 1922 – October 21, 1969), known as Jack Kerouac, was an American novelist and poet who, alongside William S. Burroughs and Allen Ginsberg, was a pioneer of the Beat Generation. Of French-Canadian pa ...

lies near the center of Mearcair Planitia.

References

Plains on Mercury {{Mercury-planet-stub