Tyagaraja is a crater on

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 ...

. Its name was adopted by the

International Astronomical Union The International Astronomical Union (IAU; french: link=yes, Union astronomique internationale, UAI) is a nongovernmental organisation with the objective of advancing astronomy in all aspects, including promoting astronomical research, outreac ...

in 1976. Tyagaraja is named for the Indian composer

Tyagaraja Thyagaraja (Telugu: త్యాగరాజ) (4 May 1767 – 6 January 1847), also known as Thyāgayya and in full as Kakarla Thyagabrahmam, was a composer and vocalist of Carnatic music, a form of Indian classical music. Tyagaraja and his ...

. Tyagaraja is the third-largest crater of the Kuiperian system on Mercury, at 97 km diameter, after Bartók crater and Amaral crater. Hollows are present within Tyagaraja. Within the extensive hollows of Tyagaraja is a ''dark spot'' of low reflectance material (LRM), closely associated with the central peak complex.Zhiyong Xiao, Robert G. Strom, David T. Blewett, Paul K. Byrne, Sean C. Solomon, Scott L. Murchie, Ann L. Sprague, Deborah L. Domingue, Jörn Helbert, 2013. ''Dark spots on Mercury: A distinctive low-reflectance material and its relation to hollows''. Journal of Geophysical Research Planets.
doi.org/10.1002/jgre.20115
/ref> Another prominent dark spot is located to the southwest of Tyagaraja, on the north rim of an unnamed crater. The larger

Phidias Phidias or Pheidias (; grc, Φειδίας, ''Pheidias''; 480 – 430 BC) was a Greek sculptor, painter, and architect. His Statue of Zeus at Olympia was one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World. Phidias also designed the stat ...

is to the north, and the crater

Stevenson Stevenson is an English language patronymic surname meaning "son of Steven". Its first historical record is from pre-10th-century England. Another origin of the name is as a toponymic surname related to the place Stevenstone in Devon, England. The ...

is to the east. File:Mariner 10 image 0000214.png,

Mariner 10 ''Mariner 10'' was an American Robotic spacecraft, robotic space probe launched by NASA on 3 November 1973, to fly by the planets Mercury (planet), Mercury and Venus. It was the first spacecraft to perform flybys of multiple planets. ''Ma ...

image with Tyagaraja at bottom File:Tyagaraja_crater_1637966.png, The interior of Tyagaraja, showing its hollows File:Tyagaraja crater EN0229624183M.jpg, Oblique view also showing the hollows

References

Impact craters on Mercury {{Mercury-planet-stub