Matabei (crater)
Encyclopedia
Matabei is an impact crater
on Mercury
. It has a set of dark rays. Dark rays are rare on Mercury, but other occurrences have been identified, such as at Mozart crater (imaged during MESSENGER’s first Mercury flyby). Mozart crater is interpreted to have excavated dark material from depth during the impact event, creating dark streamers. The dark rays from Matabei may have a similar origin.
Impact crater
In the broadest sense, the term impact crater can be applied to any depression, natural or manmade, resulting from the high velocity impact of a projectile with a larger body...
on Mercury
Mercury (planet)
Mercury is the innermost and smallest planet in the Solar System, orbiting the Sun once every 87.969 Earth days. The orbit of Mercury has the highest eccentricity of all the Solar System planets, and it has the smallest axial tilt. It completes three rotations about its axis for every two orbits...
. It has a set of dark rays. Dark rays are rare on Mercury, but other occurrences have been identified, such as at Mozart crater (imaged during MESSENGER’s first Mercury flyby). Mozart crater is interpreted to have excavated dark material from depth during the impact event, creating dark streamers. The dark rays from Matabei may have a similar origin.