The International Astronomical Union (IAU) recently approved new names for features on Mercury that were all seen for the first time in images taken by MESSENGER during the spacecraft’s first flyby of the planet (January 14, 2008). Read the full press release for additional details about the naming process and the origin of the names, and visit the U.S. Geological Survey website, the Gazetteer of Planetary Nomenclature, to learn about all of the named planetary features in the Solar System.

This image, produced by mosaicking many Narrow Angle Camera (NAC) images together, shows the locations of the newly named features, along with the craters Basho, Mozart, and Tolstoj, first seen by the Mariner 10 mission. Close-up views of many of these features are available in the MESSENGER website image gallery. In particular, look at these previous releases for NAC high-resolution images of Apollodorus, Beagle Rupes, Eminescu, Mozart, Neruda, Pantheon Fossae, Raditladi, and Sander.

The press release states:

Craters on Mercury are named after famous deceased artists, musicians, or authors. The approved crater names are:

• Apollodorus, after Apollodorus of Damascus, a second-century Greek architect credited by many with designing the Pantheon temple in Rome.
• Atget, after Eugène Atget, a French photographer noted for his photographs documenting the architecture and street scenes of Paris.
• Cunningham, after Imogen Cunningham, an American photographer known for her portraits, still lifes, and figure studies.
• Eminescu, after Romanian poet Mihail Eminescu, considered to be the "godfather" of the modern Romanian language.
• Kertész, after André Kertész, a Hungarian-born American photographer famous for developing the photo essay.
• Neruda, after Chilean poet, Nobel laureate, and politician Pablo Neruda, most famous for his love poems.
• Raditladi, after Leetile Disang Raditladi, a Botswanan poet and playwright who founded the first political party in Botswana, the Federal Party.
• Sander, after German photographer August Sander best known for his portrait series.
• Sveinsdóttir, after Júlíana Sveinsdóttir, one of Iceland's first woman painters and textile artists and a significant innovator from the 1930s to the 1950s through her approach to the landscape subject and color palette.
• Xiao Zhao, after Xiao Zhao, a Chinese artist from the Southern Song Dynasty (1127-1279) who once served as Emperor Gao Zong's dai zhao (painter-in-attendance) with the honorary title di gong lang (gentleman for meritorious achievement).