Beckett is a pit-floored crater on Mercury, which was discovered in January 2008 during the first flyby of the planet by the MESSENGER spacecraft.[1] The crater was named in November 2008 by the IAU.[2]
 MESSENGER mosaic | |
| Feature type | Impact crater |
|---|---|
| Location | Neruda quadrangle, Mercury |
| Coordinates | 40°12′S 248°43′W / 40.20°S 248.71°W |
| Diameter | 60.0 km (37.3 mi) |
| Eponym | Clarice Beckett |
Its floor is not smooth and displays a telephone or arc-shaped collapse feature, which is also called a central pit. The size of the pit is 35 × 7.5 km.[3] Such a feature may have resulted from the collapse of a magma chamber underlying the central part of the crater[3] (see also Gibran and Picasso). The collapse feature is an analog of Earth's volcanic calderas.[4]