MESSENGER NAC image, showing Zmija Facula within the crater near center
Approximate color image centered on Zmija Facula within Rembrandt

Zmija Facula is a bright region on the surface of Mercury, located within an unnamed crater that is itself within the larger Rembrandt basin. It was named by the IAU in June 2020.[1] Zmija is the Serbian word for snake.

To the northwest of the facula, along the northwest rim of the unnamed crater, is a dark spot of low reflectance material (LRM), closely associated with hollows.[2]

References

  1. "Zmija". Gazetteer of Planetary Nomenclature. NASA. Retrieved 26 July 2020.
  2. Zhiyong Xiao, Robert G. Strom, David T. Blewett, Paul K. Byrne, Sean C. Solomon, Scott L. Murchie, Ann L. Sprague, Deborah L. Domingue, Jörn Helbert, 2013. Dark spots on Mercury: A distinctive low-reflectance material and its relation to hollows. Journal of Geophysical Research Planets. doi.org/10.1002/jgre.20115
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.