Debussy is a rayed

impact crater An impact crater is a circular depression in the surface of a solid astronomical object formed by the hypervelocity impact of a smaller object. In contrast to volcanic craters, which result from explosion or internal collapse, impact craters ...

Mercury Mercury commonly refers to: * Mercury (planet), the nearest planet to the Sun * Mercury (element), a metallic chemical element with the symbol Hg * Mercury (mythology), a Roman god Mercury or The Mercury may also refer to: Companies * Merc ...

, which was discovered in 1969 by low resolution ground-based

radar Radar is a detection system that uses radio waves to determine the distance (''ranging''), angle, and radial velocity of objects relative to the site. It can be used to detect aircraft, ships, spacecraft, guided missiles, motor vehicles, w ...

observations obtained by the

Goldstone Observatory The Goldstone Deep Space Communications Complex (GDSCC), commonly called the Goldstone Observatory, is a satellite ground station located in Fort Irwin in the U.S. state of California. Operated by NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), its main ...

. Later in 1990–2005 it was imaged in more detail by the

Arecibo Observatory The Arecibo Observatory, also known as the National Astronomy and Ionosphere Center (NAIC) and formerly known as the Arecibo Ionosphere Observatory, is an observatory in Barrio Esperanza, Arecibo, Puerto Rico owned by the US National Science F ...

. The crater was initially known as the feature A. The bright appearance of rays in the radar images indicates that the crater is geologically young, because fresh and rough surfaces of young impact craters are good scatterers of radio waves. Debussy is named after

Claude Debussy (Achille) Claude Debussy (; 22 August 1862 – 25 March 1918) was a French composer. He is sometimes seen as the first Impressionist composer, although he vigorously rejected the term. He was among the most influential composers of the ...

(1862–1918), one of the most important French composers, who worked in the field of the

impressionist music Impressionism in music was a movement among various composers in Western classical music (mainly during the late 19th and early 20th centuries) whose music focuses on mood and atmosphere, "conveying the moods and emotions aroused by the subject ...

. It has a diameter of about 85 km, while the rays extend hundreds of kilometers, covering much of the southern hemisphere. The ray system of Debussy is the second most prominent on Mercury after that of

Hokusai , known simply as Hokusai, was a Japanese ukiyo-e artist of the Edo period, active as a painter and printmaker. He is best known for the woodblock printing in Japan, woodblock print series ''Thirty-Six Views of Mount Fuji'', which includes the ...

. This crater is a prominent feature in the first photograph taken from Mercury orbit, taken on March 29, 2011 by the ''MESSENGER'' probe, pictured below. Debussy is the fifth-largest crater of the Kuiperian system on Mercury. The largest is Bartók crater, and it is only slightly smaller than the aforementioned Hokusai crater.Denevi, B. W., Ernst, C. M., Prockter, L. M., and Robinson, M. S., 2018. The Geologic History of Mercury. In ''Mercury: The View After

MESSENGER ''MESSENGER'' was a NASA robotic space probe that orbited the planet Mercury between 2011 and 2015, studying Mercury's chemical composition, geology, and magnetic field. The name is a backronym for "Mercury Surface, Space Environment, Geoche ...

'' edited by Sean C. Solomon, Larry R. Nittler, and Brian J. Anderson. Cambridge Planetary Science. Chapter 6, Table 6.4.

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First ever photograph from Mercury orbit.jpg, First ever photograph from Mercury orbit with Debussy near top Debussy crater EN0235382112M.jpg, Debussy crater at a high incidence angle (79.3) Debussy crater EN1017272071M.jpg, Debussy crater at a low incidence angle (34.4)

References

Impact craters on Mercury {{Mercury-planet-stub