Stieglitz Crater Hosts Radar Bright Materials in Shadowed Areas

Summary: Stieglitz Crater hosts radar bright materials in shadowed areas on the crater’s north-facing walls and at its interior floor’s midpoint.

Image acquired via NASA’s MESSENGER spacecraft’s Mercury Dual Imaging System (MDIS) shows Stieglitz Crater and its northern neighbor, Gaudí Crater, as two large craters (upper center) on smooth plains of Borealis Planitia (Northern Plain) in Mercury’s high northern latitudes; MDIS monochrome base map has been color-coded by elevation (blue=lower elevation; red=high elevation; green, yellow=northern rise of about 1.5 kilometers [1 mile]); NASA ID PIA16536; image addition date 2012-11-14; image credit NASA/Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory/Carnegie Institution of Washington: May be used for any purpose without prior permission, via NASA JPL Photojournal

Stieglitz Crater hosts radar bright materials in shadowed areas that are located at the midpoint of the crater’s interior floor and on north-facing walls of the crater’s southern side.

Stieglitz Crater is a crater on Mercury, the Solar System planet that orbits closest to the sun. Stieglitz occurs within Borealis Planitia (Northern Plain), the Mercurial north polar region’s smooth plains.

Stieglitz is centered at 72.54 degrees north latitude, 292.37 degrees west longitude, according to the Gazetteer of Planetary Nomenclature. The northern hemisphere crater’s northernmost and southernmost latitudes occur at 73.63 degrees north and 71.44 degrees north, respectively. The polar region crater obtains its easternmost and westernmost longitudes at 288.7 degrees west and 296.03 degrees west, respectively. Stieglitz Crater’s diameter measures 100 kilometers.

Gaudí Crater is Stieglitz Crater’s nearest named neighbor in Borealis Planitia. Stieglitz lies to the south of Gaudí.

Gaudí is centered at 76.9 degrees north latitude, 290.84 degrees west longitude. It registers northernmost and southernmost latitudes of 77.85 degrees north and 75.96 degrees north, respectively. It records easternmost and westernmost longitudes of 286.67 degrees west and 295.01 degrees west, respectively. Gaudí Crater has a diameter of 81 kilometers.

Gaudí and Stieglitz number among the plethora of craters hosting radar-bright features in Mercury’s north polar region. Planetary scientist Nancy L. Chabot and six co-authors, representing a collaboration of researchers from Maryland’s Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory (JHUAPL), the National Astronomy and Ionosophere Center at Puerto Rico’s Arecibo Observatory and Washington DC’s Carnegie Institution, reported on “Craters Hosting Radar-Bright Deposits in Mercury’s North Polar Region” at the 43rd Lunar and Planetary Science Conference, held Monday, March 19, to Friday, March 23, 2012, in The Woodlands, east central Texas.

The Mercury Dual Imaging System (MDIS) carried by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration’s (NASA) robotic spacecraft MESSENGER (Mercury Surface, Space Environment, Geochemistry, and Ranging) imaged Mercury’s surface, with an average resolution of 250 meters per pixel. MESSENGER’s highly eccentric orbit exhibited a minimum altitude of approximately 200 kilometers over the north polar region and a maximum altitude of approximately 15, 200 kilometers over the south polar region.

Two base maps presented the same terrain under different illumination conditions. A monochrome map emphasized surface morphology. A color map enabled the determination of color characteristics. Averaging the two base maps captured the locations remaining in shadow in both maps. A comparison with the highest resolution radar images obtained from Puerto Rico’s Arecibo Observatory yielded congruity between radar-bright and shadowed locations.

Mapping of all craters with diameters equal to or greater than 10 kilometers revealed the prevalence of radar-bright features in craters near Mercury’s north pole. Craters lacking radar-bright features stood out as exceptions.

Both Gaudí Crater and Stieglitz Crater exhibit radar-bright features that coincide with locations identified as shadowed in the MDIS data. The radar-bright, shadowed locations occur along the north-facing walls of their southern sides. Radar-bright, shadowed areas appear in the central peak formation on Stieglitz Crater’s interior floor. Easily half a dozen radar-bright, shadowed areas dot Gaudí Crater’s interior floor.

Chabot and her six co-researchers reference the hypothesis of Mercury’s permanent, polar region cold traps put forth in papers in the October 23, 1992, issue of Science by Martin Slade of NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) and Bryan Butler and Duane Muhleman of the California Institute of Technology’s (Caltech) Division of Geological and Planetary Sciences and by Slade with John Harmon of Arecibo, Puerto Rico’s National Astronomy and Ionosphere Center. Slade, Butler and Muhleman collected their data from radar observations conducted Aug. 8 and Aug. 23, 1991, via transmitting by NASA JPL’s Goldstone 70-meter (230-foot) antenna in the Mojave Desert, southeastern California, and receiving by the National Radio Astronomy Observatory’s Very Large Array (VLA) in Socorro, south central New Mexico. Random-code delay-Doppler mapping obtained by Harmon at Arecibo over 28 dates supported the hypothesis of cold, permanently shadowed, large craters in Mercury’s north polar region as stable water ice traps.

The takeaways for Stieglitz Crater’s hosting of radar-bright materials in shadowed areas are that maps obtained via NASA’s robotic MESSENGER spacecraft’s Mercury Dual Imaging System (MDIS) reveal the prevalent coincidence of radar-bright materials with shadowed areas in craters with diameters of 10 or more kilometers in Mercury’s north polar region and that the results are consistent with a water-ice hypothesis of trapped water ice in cold, persistently shadowed sites.

Image obtained Aug. 27, 2012, by NASA’s robotic MESSENGER spacecraft shows Stieglitz Crater’s central peak, which hosts radar-bright materials; NASA ID PIA16420; image addition date 2012-10-08; image credit NASA/Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory/Carnegie Institution of Washington: May be used for any purpose without prior permission, via NASA JPL Photojournal

Acknowledgment

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

Image credits:

Image acquired via NASA’s MESSENGER spacecraft’s Mercury Dual Imaging System (MDIS) shows Stieglitz Crater and its northern neighbor, Gaudí Crater, as two large craters (upper center) on smooth plains of Borealis Planitia (Northern Plain) in Mercury’s high northern latitudes; MDIS monochrome base map has been color-coded by elevation (blue=lower elevation; red=high elevation; green, yellow=northern rise of about 1.5 kilometers [1 mile]); NASA ID PIA16536; image addition date 2012-11-14; image credit NASA/Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory/Carnegie Institution of Washington: May be used for any purpose without prior permission, via NASA JPL Photojournal @ https://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA16536

Image obtained Aug. 27, 2012, by NASA’s robotic MESSENGER spacecraft shows Stieglitz Crater’s central peak, which hosts radar-bright materials; NASA ID PIA16420; image addition date 2012-10-08; image credit NASA/Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory/Carnegie Institution of Washington: May be used for any purpose without prior permission, via NASA JPL Photojournal @ https://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA16420

For further information:

Chabot, Nancy L.; Carolyn M. Ernst; John K. Harmon; Scott L. Murchie; Sean C. Solomon; David T. Blewett; and Brett W. Denevi. “Craters Hosting Radar-Bright Deposits in Mercury’s North Polar Region.” 43 Lunar and Planetary Science Conference, 2012.
Available @ https://www.lpi.usra.edu/meetings/lpsc2012/pdf/1476.pdf

Grego, Peter. Venus and Mercury, and How to Observe Them. Astronomers’ Observing Guides. New York NY: Springer Science+Business Media, 2008.

Harmon, John K.; and Martin A. Slade “Radar Mapping of Mercury: Full-Disk Images and Polar Anomalies.” Science, new series vol. 258, issue 5082 (Oct. 23, 1992): 640-643.
Available via AAAS (American Association for the Advancement of Science) @ https://science.sciencemag.org/content/258/5082/640
Available via JSTOR @ https://www.jstor.org/stable/2880195

International Astronomical Union (IAU) / U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) Gazetteer of Planetary Nomenclature. “Borealis Planitia.” USGS Astrogeology Science Center > Gazetteer of Planetary Nomenclature > Nomenclature > The Moon. Last updated April 17, 2018.
Available @ https://planetarynames.wr.usgs.gov/Feature/823

International Astronomical Union (IAU) / U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) Gazetteer of Planetary Nomenclature. “Gaudí.” USGS Astrogeology Science Center > Gazetteer of Planetary Nomenclature > Nomenclature > The Moon. Last updated Aug. 6, 2012.
Available @ https://planetarynames.wr.usgs.gov/Feature/15021

International Astronomical Union (IAU) / U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) Gazetteer of Planetary Nomenclature. “Stieglitz.” USGS Astrogeology Science Center > Gazetteer of Planetary Nomenclature > Nomenclature > The Moon. Last updated Feb. 27, 2012.
Available @ https://planetarynames.wr.usgs.gov/Feature/14928

International Astronomical Union (IAU) / U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) Gazetteer of Planetary Nomenclature. “Target: Mercury.” USGS Astrogeology Science Center > Gazetteer of Planetary Nomenclature > Nomenclature > Mercury.
Available @ https://planetarynames.wr.usgs.gov/Page/MERCURY/target

Jenner, Lynn, page ed. “Mountains of Darkness.” NASA > Mission Pages > MESSENGER > Multimedia. Page last updated Oct. 8, 2012.
Available @ https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/messenger/multimedia/messenger_orbit_image20121008_1.html

Kreslavsky, M.A.; J.W. Head; G.A. Neumann; M.T. Zuber; and D.E. Smith. “Features of the Northern Smooth Plains of Mercury Revealed by Detrended MLA Topography: Comparison With the Moon.” 47th Lunar and Planetary Science Conference, March 21-25, 2016: Abstract #1333.
Available via USRA-Houston @ https://www.hou.usra.edu/meetings/lpsc2016/pdf/1333.pdf

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

NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory. “PIA16536: Running Up That Hill.” NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory Photojournal > Catalog. Image added 2012-11-14.
Available @ https://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA16536

NASA Messenger. “Image of Mercury: Close-up of Craters Hosting Radar-Bright Deposits.” SpaceRef > Solar System > Mercury. March 26, 2012.
Available @ http://spaceref.com/news/viewsr.html?pid=40381

Paige, David A.; Stephen E. Wood; and Ashwin R. Vasavada. “The Thermal Stability of Water Ice at the Poles of Mercury.” Science, new series vol. 258, issue 5082 (Oct. 23, 1992): 643-646.
Available via AAAS (American Association for the Advancement of Science) @ https://science.sciencemag.org/content/258/5082/643
Available via UCLA Diviner @ http://luna1.diviner.ucla.edu/~dap/pubs/012.pdf

Slade, Martin A.; Bryan J. Butler; and Duane O. Muhleman. “Mercury Radar Imaging: Evidence for Polar Ice.” Science, new series vol. 258, issue 5082 (Oct. 23, 1992): 635-640.
Available via AAAS (American Association for the Advancement of Science) @ https://science.sciencemag.org/content/258/5082/635
Available via JSTOR @ https://www.jstor.org/stable/2880194

Talbert, Tricia, ed. “MESSENGER Finds New Evidence for Water Ice at Mercury’s Poles.” NASA > Mission Pages > MESSENGER > Media. Nov. 29, 2012.
Available @ https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/messenger/media/PressConf20121129.html

Stieglitz Crater Honors American Photographer Alfred Stieglitz

Summary: Stieglitz Crater honors American photographer Alfred Stieglitz as a north polar latitude crater occupying planet Mercury’s Borealis Planitia (Northern Plain).

Detail of Map of the H-1 (Borealis) Quadrangle of Mercury shows Stieglitz Crater as north polar occupant of Mercury’s Borealis Planitia (North Plains): courtesy NASA (National Aeronautics and Space Administration) / Johns Hopkins University of Applied Physics Laboratory / Carnegie Institution of Washington / USGS (U.S. Geological Survey), via USGS Astrogeology Science Center / Gazetteer of Planetary Nomenclature

Stieglitz Crater honors American photographer Alfred Stieglitz as a north polar region crater lying on smallest, innermost Solar System planet Mercury’s Borealis Planitia (Northern Plain).

The International Astronomical Union (IAU) Working Group for Planetary System Nomenclature’s (WGPSN) website, which is maintained by the USGS (U.S. Geological Survey) Astrogeology Science Center, announced Feb. 28, 2012: “The name Stieglitz has been approved for a crater on Mercury.”

Stieglitz is centered at 72.54 degrees north latitude, 292.37 degrees west longitude, according to the Gazetteer of Planetary Nomenclature. The northern hemisphere crater’s northernmost and southernmost latitudes occur at 73.63 degrees north and 71.44 degrees north, respectively. The polar region crater obtains its easternmost and westernmost longitudes at 288.7 degrees west and 296.03 degrees west, respectively. Stieglitz Crater’s diameter measures 100 kilometers.

Stieglitz Crater resides on Borealis Planitia (Northern Plain). The feature occurs as smooth plains in Mercury’s northern polar area.

Borealis Planitia is centered at 67.3 degrees north latitude, 327.4 degrees west longitude. The northernmost and southernmost latitudes of the northern polar plains stretch to 86.9 degrees north and 29.5 degrees north, respectively. Its easternmost and westernmost longitudes reach 225.4 degrees west and 134.6 degrees west, respectively. Borealis Planitia’s diameter spans 3,450 kilometers.

A photo acquired Aug. 27, 2012, by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration’s (NASA) robotic MESSENGER (Mercury Surface, Space Environment, Geochemistry, and Ranging) spacecraft shows Stieglitz Crater’s ejecta blanket. Secondary impacts have formed linear chains radiating from Stieglitz Crater’s larger impact. Smaller secondaries appear as very small, irregularly distributed craters.

MESSENGER launched Tuesday, Aug. 3, 2004, at 06:15:57 Universal Time (2:15 a.m. Eastern Daylight Time) from east central Florida’s Cape Canaveral. Three Mercury fly-bys took place Jan. 14, 2008, at a distance of 125 miles; Oct. 6, 2008, at 124 miles; and Sep. 29, 2009, at 124 miles.

On March 18, 2011, preparatory to its first Mercury science mission, MESSENGER entered a near-polar eccentric orbit around Mercury. On April 4, 2011, MESSENGER began data collection for the science mission. A one-year extended mission commenced March 18, 2012. A second extended mission, granted for two years, began on March 18, 2013.

Stieglitz Crater honors American photographer (Jan. 1, 1864-July 13, 1946). Stieglitz captured a range of photographic subjects, including events, nature, people, places and things, in his determination to establish photography as a modern art form.

Clouds numbered among his nature photographs. His first extant cloud photographs date to 1922, according to Judy Annear, senior curator photographs at the Art Gallery of New South Wales, in the Spring 2011 issue of American Art. Four hundred cloud photographs have survived from the period between 1922 and 1931.

In his article, “How I Came to Photograph Clouds,” published in the 1923 issue of Amateur Photographer and Photography, Stieglitz explained the motivation for his focusing on clouds as an attempt to discern what he had learned from four decades as a photographer. He noted 1923 as “40 years this year” from the start of his studies with German photochemist and photographer Hermann Wilhelm Vogel (March 26, 1834-Dec. 17, 1898) at Technische Hochschule in Berlin, Germany.

In selecting clouds to express his philosophy of life, Stieglitz was pursuing a natural phenomenon that had been on his mind for over 35 years. He traced his interest in the relationship between clouds and “the rest of the world” to a “few days” passed in Mürren in the Bernese Highlands (German: Berner Oberland), southern canton of Bern, west-central Switzerland.

Initially, Stieglitz associated his cloud photographs with music. Early titles for this photographs included Music: A Sequence of Ten Cloud Photographs (1922) and Songs of the Sky (1923), according to the Art Institute of Chicago’s webpages on the art museum’s Alfred Stieglitz Collection.

Judy Annear’s article identifies 1925 as the year in which Stieglitz switched to Equivalents as the name for his cloud photographs. He viewed his cloud depictions as expressions of his emotions.

The takeaways for Stieglitz Crater, which honors American photographer Alfred Stieglitz, are that the crater is founded on Borealis Planitia (Northern Plains) in planet Mercury’s north polar region; and that the crater’s namesake, who explored photography as a modern art form, sought to capture the expressive quality of clouds in hundreds of photographs taken between 1922 and 1931.

Image acquired Aug. 27, 2012, by NASA’s robotic MESSENGER spacecraft shows Stieglitz Crater’s ejecta blanket; secondary impact-formed linear chains radiate from the larger Stieglitz impact; in the image’s middle, smaller secondaries appear as very small, irregularly-distributed craters; north is to the right, with the sun low on the horizon; NASA ID PIA16422; image addition date 2012-10-10; image credit NASA/Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory/Carnegie Institution of Washington: May be used for any purpose without prior permission, via NASA JPL Photojournal

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-1 (Borealis) Quadrangle of Mercury shows Stieglitz Crater as north polar occupant of Mercury’s Borealis Planitia (North Plains): courtesy NASA (National Aeronautics and Space Administration) / Johns Hopkins University of Applied Physics Laboratory / Carnegie Institution of Washington / USGS (U.S. Geological Survey), via USGS Astrogeology Science Center / Gazetteer of Planetary Nomenclature @ https://planetarynames.wr.usgs.gov/images/H-1.pdf

Image acquired Aug. 27, 2012, by NASA’s robotic MESSENGER spacecraft shows Stieglitz Crater’s ejecta blanket; secondary impact-formed linear chains radiate from the larger Stieglitz impact; in the image’s middle, smaller secondaries appear as very small, irregularly-distributed craters; north is to the right, with the sun low on the horizon; NASA ID PIA16422; image addition date 2012-10-10; image credit NASA/Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory/Carnegie Institution of Washington: May be used for any purpose without prior permission, via NASA JPL Photojournal @ https://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA16422

For further information:

Annear, Judy. “Clouds to Rain -- Stieglitz and the Equivalents.” American Art, vol. 25, no. 1 (Spring 2011): 16-19.
Available via JSTOR @ https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.1086/660027

Art Institute of Chicago. “Equivalents.” The Art Institute of Chicago > Stieglitz Series.
Available @ https://archive.artic.edu/stieglitz/equivalents/

Grego, Peter. Venus and Mercury, and How to Observe Them. Astronomers’ Observing Guides. New York NY: Springer Science+Business Media, 2008.

International Astronomical Union (IAU) / U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) Gazetteer of Planetary Nomenclature. “Borealis Planitia.” USGS Astrogeology Science Center > Gazetteer of Planetary Nomenclature > Nomenclature > The Moon. Last updated April 17, 2018.
Available @ https://planetarynames.wr.usgs.gov/Feature/823

International Astronomical Union (IAU) / U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) Gazetteer of Planetary Nomenclature. “Stieglitz.” USGS Astrogeology Science Center > Gazetteer of Planetary Nomenclature > Nomenclature > The Moon. Last updated Feb. 27, 2012.
Available @ https://planetarynames.wr.usgs.gov/Feature/14928

International Astronomical Union (IAU) / U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) Gazetteer of Planetary Nomenclature. “Target: Mercury.” USGS Astrogeology Science Center > Gazetteer of Planetary Nomenclature > Nomenclature > Mercury.
Available @ https://planetarynames.wr.usgs.gov/Page/MERCURY/target

Jenner, Lynn, page ed. “Stieglitz Strikes.” NASA > Mission Pages > MESSENGER > Multimedia. Page last updated Oct. 10, 2012.
Available @ https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/messenger/multimedia/messenger_orbit_image20121010_1.html

Marriner, Derdriu. “Stickney Crater Honors Phobos Discoverer Asaph Hall’s First Wife.” Earth and Space News. Wednesday, July 3, 2013.
Available @ https://earth-and-space-news.blogspot.com/2013/07/stickney-crater-honors-phobos.html

Stieglitz, Alfred. “How I Came to Photograph Clouds.” Amateur Photographer and Photography, vol. 56, no. 1819 (Sept. 19, 1923): 255.
Available @ http://jnevins.com/steiglitzclouds.htm

Stieglitz, Alfred. “How I Came to Photograph Clouds.” Page 237. In: Richard Whelan, comp., Stieglitz on Photography: His Selected Essays and Notes. New York NY: Aperture Foundation, 2000.

U.S. Geological Survey Astrogeology Science Center. “Mercury Crater Named Stieglitz.” Gazetteer of Planetary Nomenclature > News. Feb. 28, 2012.
Available @ https://astrogeology.usgs.gov/news/nomenclature/mercury-crater-named-stieglitz