Praxiteles (crater)

Praxiteles

Color-enhanced photograph by MESSENGER
Planet Mercury
Coordinates 27°18′N 59°12′W / 27.3°N 59.2°W / 27.3; -59.2Coordinates: 27°18′N 59°12′W / 27.3°N 59.2°W / 27.3; -59.2
Diameter 182 km
Eponym Praxiteles

Praxiteles is a crater on Mercury.

MESSENGER's high-resolution images obtained during the mission's second Mercury flyby have revealed a number of irregularly shaped depressions on the floor of Praxiteles crater, making it a pit-floor crater. The colors near these depressions in WAC images are similar to those near volcanoes discovered during the mission's first Mercury flyby along the inner edge of the Caloris basin. The similar colors and the association with the irregular depressions (possible volcanic vents) are suggestive of past volcanic activity on the floor of Praxiteles.[1][2]

Praxiteles crater was first observed by Mariner 10.

References

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