Mercury Flyby 2 Options

[Holder of the Tw...]

It is time for this new topic.

Round Two

[dvandorn]

I almost decided it was a chance alignment of craters, too -- but my eye keeps going back to the dark-albedo arcs to the north and south. Those seem to be independent of the craters in the area, and their arc shapes define a big circular feature. Now, it seems to me that a big circular feature like that would have to be either the degraded remnants of a huge shield volcano or the degraded remnants of a basin. Since we've seen a lot of the latter and no other indications of the former, I sort of get led down the garden path to Skinakas...

-the other Doug

[Holder of the Tw...]

I almost decided it was a chance alignment of craters, too -- but my eye keeps going back to the dark-albedo arcs to the north and south.

I know what you mean. I can't get over the feeling that there is something there. At the very least, we may be seeing the chance illusion that led to Skinakas in the first place. This may be one of those cases where more detail isn't going to help, and the coarse resolution pictures may show it best, provided there is an "it". If there is an old basin there, it may take laser altimetry from orbit to settle the issue.

Well, I may regret this, but I'm going to vote that there is something to Skinakas.