Date Acquired: October 6, 2008 Image Mission Elapsed Time (MET): 131774056 Instrument: Narrow Angle Camera (NAC) of the Mercury Dual Imaging System (MDIS) Resolution: 540 meters/pixel (0.34 miles) Scale: Berkel is 21 kilometers (13 miles) in diameter Spacecraft Altitude: 21,200 kilometers (13,200 miles) Of Interest: The crater in the lower left corner of this image is Berkel, recently named for Turkish painter and printmaker Sabri Berkel (1909–1993). The crater contains dark material in its center and in a ring immediately surrounding it. Moreover, Berkel is surrounded by a blanket of bright ejecta and a system of bright rays. Other craters on Mercury’s surface, such as Basho, also exhibit both bright rays and dark halos. In contrast, two neighboring craters in this image (indicated by white arrows) have bright rays but lack dark halos. Members of the MESSENGER Science Team are investigating why some craters contain dark material while others do not, and what that means for the nature and structure of Mercury's crust.
Sabri Fetah Berkel (1907–1993) was a Turkish modernist painter; he was one of the most important painters and academic personalities of last century in Turkey.
Berkel was born in Shkupi, where, in 1927, he completed high school at a French lyceum. From 1927 to 1928 he studied at an Art School in Beograd. From 1929–1935 he finished his studies at the Academy of Fine Arts, Florence.
Sabri Fetahu Berkel visited his country Albania in 1982 where he met with his family and parents. Berkel died in Istanbul. In the honor of Turkish talented painter Sabri Berkel from Turkey, NASA decided to name the Berkel (crater), or the well known print maker, and it is a complex crater that sits inside of the larger Ellington basin that indicates the presence of dark material at depth of its surface.
