3D print Rachmaninoff basin on Mercury
A double-ringed basin on the planet closest to the Sun, on one print: the outer rim, the inner ring of peaks and the smooth floor in the middle, from elevation data measured by NASA's MESSENGER spacecraft.
Where it is 27.66°N 57.37°E Mercury
- Diameter
- About 290 km (180 mi)
- Type
- Peak-ring (double-ring) impact basin
- Lowest point
- 5.38 km (3.34 mi) below Mercury's average
- Named for
- Sergei Rachmaninoff (1873-1943)
394 by 380 km of Mercury, 160 mm across
About Rachmaninoff basin
Rachmaninoff is an impact basin about 290 km (180 mi) across on Mercury, among the youngest of its kind on the planet. An inner ring of peaks circles its center, and the floor inside that ring holds the lowest point NASA has measured on Mercury, 5.38 km (3.34 mi) below the planet's average height.
The smooth plains inside the inner ring formed from lava after the impact, the youngest volcanism NASA had documented on Mercury when it was imaged. MESSENGER first saw the whole basin during its third flyby on September 29, 2009, and became the first spacecraft to orbit Mercury in 2011. The basin is named for the composer Sergei Rachmaninoff.
Sources: IAU Gazetteer of Planetary Nomenclature: Rachmaninoff, NASA: Revisiting Rachmaninoff, NASA: Young volcanism on Mercury, NASA: First global topographic model of Mercury, NASA Science: MESSENGER
