Mercury's Nawahi Crater Honors Native Hawaiian Painter Joseph Nawahi

Summary: Mercury's Nawahi Crater honors Native Hawaiian painter Joseph Nawahi, recognized as the first Native Hawaiian to create Western-style paintings.

Detail of Map of the H-4 (Raditladi) Quadrangle of Mercury shows Nawahi Crater (center left) and Kertész Crater (lower left) in western Caloris Planitia; image credit NASA/Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory/Carnegie Institution of Washington/USGS: Gazetteer of Planetary Nomenclature

Mercury's Nawahi Crater honors Native Hawaiian painter Joseph Nawahi, a 19th-century nationalist leader whose legacy includes stature as the first Native Hawaiian practitioner of Western-style painting.

Nāwahī (clean name: Nawahi) Crater lies in western Caloris Planitia (Hot Plain) in south central Raditladi Quadrangle. The quadrangle numbers as fourth of the 15 quadrangles that abstractly divide the surface of the Swift Planet. The quadrangle's map covers the northern hemisphere's low-to-middle latitudes longitudinally from 180 to 270 degrees west longitude.

Nawahi (pronounced Na-vah-HEE) Crater is centered at 35.88 degrees north latitude, 214.74 degrees west longitude, according to the International Astronomical Union’s (IAU) Gazetteer of Planetary Nomenclature. The northern hemisphere crater obtains its northernmost and southernmost latitudes at 36.34 degrees north and 35.43 degrees north, respectively. Its easternmost and westernmost longitudes occur at 214.18 degrees west and 215.3 degrees west, respectively. Nawahi Crater's diameter measures 38 kilometers.

The Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory (JHUAPL)-hosted MESSENGER (Mercury Surface, Space Environment, Geochemistry, and Ranging) website noted the dark material that surrounds Nawahi Crater in "Say Aloha to Nawahi!," posted Dec. 8, 2008. An image, obtained Jan. 14, 2008, at a spacecraft altitude of 9,400 kilometers (5,800 miles) by the Narrow Angle Camera (NAC) of the Mercury Dual Imaging System (MDIS) during MESSENGER's first Mercury flyby, captured Nawahi Crater's dark halo. Described as "unusual dark material," the halo's rocks are likely to differ chemically and mineralogically from the lighter-surfaced surrounding terrain.

The major landform in which Nawahi Crater resides, Caloris Planitia, occurs as a large plain in Mercury's Caloris impact basin. Centered in the Raditladi Quadrangle, Caloris Basin extends eastward into Shakespeare Quadrangle and southward into Tolstoj Quadrangle.

The International Astronomical Union (IAU) approved the plain's name in 1976 as one of two exceptions to the convention of names of Mercury, as god or planet, in various languages for Mercury's plains. The other exception is Borealis Planitia ("Northern Plain"), the namesake of Borealis Quadrangle, the northern polar region quadrangle with northern adjacency to Raditladi Quadrangle.

Caloris Planitia is centered at 31.65 degrees north latitude, 198.02 degrees west longitude. Its northernmost and southernmost latitudes touch 48.6 degrees north and 15.54 degrees north, respectively. Its easternmost and westernmost longitudes reach 176.3 degrees west and 217.97 degrees west, respectively. Caloris Planitia spans 1,500 kilometers.

Kertész (clean name: Kertesz) Crater is located to the south-southeast as Nawahi Crater's nearest named southern neighbor in Caloris Planitia. The crater's name, approved Apr 8, 2008, honors Hungarian-Jewish, later naturalized American (1944), photographer André Kertész (born Andor Kertész; July 2, 1894-Sept. 28, 1985).

The NASA-owned Jet Propulsion Laboratory's (JPL) online Photojournal post of Dec. 10, 2012, "PIA16624: The Sublime Kertész," presented an image of Kertesz Crater obtained Nov. 17, 2012, by the Narrow Angle Camera of MESSENGER's Mercury Dual Imaging System. Obtained as a high-resolution targeted observation, the image revealed Kertesz Crater's bright interior floor. The floor's "bright, irregular features," which are known as hollows, occur as prevalent landforms in Mercury's craters.

Kertesz Crater is centered at 27.37 degrees north latitude, 213.92 degrees west longitude. It marks its northernmost and southernmost latitudes at 27.77 degrees north and 26.98 degrees north, respectively. It establishes its easternmost and westernmost longitudes at 213.46 degrees west and 214.39 degrees west, respectively. Kertesz Crater has a diameter of 32 kilometers.

The International Astronomical Union approved Nawahi Crater's name on Nov. 20, 2008. The Mercurian crater eponymizes Native Hawaiian painter Joseph Kahoʻoluhi Nāwahī (Jan. 13, 1842-Sept. 14, 1896), whose full Hawaiian name was Iosepa Kahoʻoluhi Nāwahīokalaniʻōpuʻu.

The 19th-century nationalist leader's legacy extends beyond politics into art. In her article, "Rare Painting by 'Hawaiian Ben Franklin," posted Sunday, Jan. 14, 2007, in the Honolulu Advertiser, Assistant Features Editor Wanda A. Adams noted Nawahi's recently discovered "Painting of Hilo Bay" (1888) as ". . . the only western-style painting by a Native Hawaiian of the 19th century." The painting numbers as ". . . one of five known paintings by the 19th-century Hawaiian teacher, lawmaker and royal adviser."

The takeaways for Nawahi Crater's honoring Native Hawaiian painter Joseph Nawahi are that the northern hemisphere crater lies in western Caloris Planitia (Hot Plain) in south central Raditladi Quadrangle; that bright-floored Kertész (Kertesz) Crater occurs as the middle-latitude crater's nearest named southern neighbor; and that the dark-haloed crater eponymizes 19th-century Native Hawaiian politician-artist Joseph Nawahi, whose legacy includes five paintings representing the first instances of Western-style painting by a Native Hawaiian.

"Painting of Hilo Bay," 1888 oil painting by 19th-century Native Hawaiian politician-artist Joseph Kahoʻoluhi Nāwahī (full Hawaiian name Iosepa Kahoʻoluhi Nāwahīokalaniʻōpuʻu); Ke Ali'i Pauahi Foundation, Kamehameha Schools, Honolulu, Hawaii: Public Domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Acknowledgment

My special thanks to talented artists and photographers/concerned organizations who make their fine images available on the internet.

Image credits:

Detail of Map of the H-4 (Raditladi) Quadrangle of Mercury shows Nawahi Crater (center left) and Kertész Crater (lower left) in western Caloris Planitia; image credit NASA/Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory/Carnegie Institution of Washington/USGS: Gazetteer of Planetary Nomenclature @ https://planetarynames.wr.usgs.gov/images/H-4.pdf

"Painting of Hilo Bay," 1888 oil painting by 19th-century Native Hawaiian politician-artist Joseph Kahoʻoluhi Nāwahī (full Hawaiian name Iosepa Kahoʻoluhi Nāwahīokalaniʻōpuʻu); Ke Ali'i Pauahi Foundation, Kamehameha Schools, Honolulu, Hawaii: Public Domain, via Wikimedia Commons @ https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:'View_of_Hilo_Bay',_oil_painting_by_Joseph_Nawahi,_1888,_Kamehameha_Schools,_Honolulu.jpg

For further information:

Adams, Wanda A. (January 14, 2007). "Rare Painting by 'Hawaiian Ben Franklin'". The Honolulu Advertiser. Sunday, Jan. 14, 2007.
Available via Internet Archive Wayback Machine @ https://web.archive.org/web/20090604222207/http://the.honoluluadvertiser.com/article/2007/Jan/14/il/FP701140310.html/?print=on

International Astronomical Union (IAU) / U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) Gazetteer of Planetary Nomenclature. “Caloris Planitia.” USGS Astrogeology Science Center > Gazetteer of Planetary Nomenclature > Nomenclature > Mercury. Last updated May 25, 2016.
Available @ https://planetarynames.wr.usgs.gov/Feature/979

International Astronomical Union (IAU) / U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) Gazetteer of Planetary Nomenclature. “Categories (Themes) for Naming Features on Planets and Satellites.” USGS Astrogeology Science Center > Gazetteer of Planetary Nomenclature > Documentation > Surface Feature Categories.
Available @ https://planetarynames.wr.usgs.gov/Page/Categories

International Astronomical Union (IAU) / U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) Gazetteer of Planetary Nomenclature. “Coordinate Systems for Planets and Satellites.” USGS Astrogeology Science Center > Gazetteer of Planetary Nomenclature > Documentation > Target Coordinate Systems.
Available @ https://planetarynames.wr.usgs.gov/TargetCoordinates

International Astronomical Union (IAU) / U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) Gazetteer of Planetary Nomenclature. “Descriptor Terms (Feature Types).” USGS Astrogeology Science Center > Gazetteer of Planetary Nomenclature > Documentation > Descriptor Terms.
Available @ https://planetarynames.wr.usgs.gov/DescriptorTerms

International Astronomical Union (IAU) / U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) Gazetteer of Planetary Nomenclature. “Kertész.” USGS Astrogeology Science Center > Gazetteer of Planetary Nomenclature > Nomenclature > Mercury. Last updated Oct. 11, 2016.
Available @ https://planetarynames.wr.usgs.gov/Feature/14398

International Astronomical Union (IAU) / U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) Gazetteer of Planetary Nomenclature. “Munch.” USGS Astrogeology Science Center > Gazetteer of Planetary Nomenclature > Nomenclature > Mercury. Last updated Oct. 12, 2016.
Available @ https://planetarynames.wr.usgs.gov/Feature/14513

International Astronomical Union (IAU) / U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) Gazetteer of Planetary Nomenclature. “Nāwahī.” USGS Astrogeology Science Center > Gazetteer of Planetary Nomenclature > Nomenclature > Mercury. Last updated Oct. 12, 2016.
Available @ https://planetarynames.wr.usgs.gov/Feature/14515

International Astronomical Union (IAU) / U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) Gazetteer of Planetary Nomenclature. “Poe.” USGS Astrogeology Science Center > Gazetteer of Planetary Nomenclature > Nomenclature > Mercury. Last updated Oct. 12, 2016.
Available @ https://planetarynames.wr.usgs.gov/Feature/14517

International Astronomical Union (IAU) / U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) Gazetteer of Planetary Nomenclature. “Sander.” USGS Astrogeology Science Center > Gazetteer of Planetary Nomenclature > Nomenclature > Mercury. Last updated Oct. 13, 2016.
Available @ https://planetarynames.wr.usgs.gov/Feature/14395

Jet Propulsion Laboratory. "PIA16624: The Sublime Kertész." PhotoJournal. Image Credit: NASA/Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory/Carnegie Institution of Washington. Image Addition Date: 2012-12-10.
Available @ https://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA16624

Marriner, Derdriu. "Stieglitz Crater Honors American Photographer Alfred Stieglitz." Earth and Space News. Wednesday, July 10, 2013.
Available @ https://earth-and-space-news.blogspot.com/2013/07/stieglitz-crater-honors-american.html

Marriner, Derdriu. "Stieglitz Crater Hosts Radar Bright Materials in Shadowed Areas." Earth and Space News. Wednesday, July 17, 2013.
Available @ https://earth-and-space-news.blogspot.com/2016/07/rare-simultaneous-mercury-and-venus.html

MESSENGER. "New Names for a Second Set of Craters on Mercury." The Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory (JHUAPL) > Explore. Release Date: Nov. 26, 2008.
Available @ https://messenger.jhuapl.edu/Explore/Science-Images-Database/gallery-image-276.html

MESSENGER. "Say Aloha to Nawahi!" The Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory (JHUAPL) > Explore. Release Date: Dec. 8, 2008.
Available @ https://messenger.jhuapl.edu/Explore/Science-Images-Database/gallery-image-278.html

Ozawa, Ryan Kawailani. "Nawahi Crater on Mercury." Hawaii Blog. Nov. 27, 2008.
Available @ https://www.hawaiiweblog.com/2008/11/27/nawahi-crater

Severson, Don R.; Michael D. Horikawa; Jennifer Saville, Jennifer. Finding Paradise: Island Art in Private Collections. Honolulu HI: Honolulu Academy of Arts; University of Hawaiʻi Press, 2002.

Sheldon, John G. M.; Edward L. Like; and John K. Prendergast. Ka Puke Moʻolelo o Hon. Joseph K. Nāwahī (in Hawaiian). Hilo HI: Hale Kuamoʻo, Ka Haka ʻUla o Keʻelikōlani, 1996 [1906].