Yoshikawa (crater)

{{short description|Crater on Mercury}}

{{Infobox crater data

| title = Yoshikawa

| image = Yoshikawa crater EW0219521705L.jpg

| caption = MESSENGER image

| globe = Mercury

| coordinates = {{coord|81.21|N|253.97|W|globe:mercury_type:landmark|display=inline,title}}

| diameter = {{cvt|30|km}}

| eponym = Eiji Yoshikawa

}}

Yoshikawa is a crater on Mercury, near the north pole. It was named by the IAU in 2012 after the Japanese novelist Eiji Yoshikawa.{{GPN|15028}}

S band radar data from the Arecibo Observatory collected between 1999 and 2005 indicates a radar-bright area along the southern interior of Yoshikawa, which is probably indicative of a water ice deposit, and lies within the permanently shadowed part of the crater.Chabot, N. L., D. J. Lawrence, G. A. Neumann, W. C. Feldman, and D. A. Paige, 2018. Mercury's Polar Deposits. In Mercury: The View After MESSENGER edited by Sean C. Solomon, Larry R. Nittler, and Brian J. Anderson. Cambridge Planetary Science. Chapter 13, Figure 13.2.[https://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA19411 PIA19411: Water Ice on Mercury], NASA/Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory/Carnegie Institution of WashingtonJohn K. Harmon, Martin A. Slade, Melissa S. Rice, 2011. Radar imagery of Mercury’s putative polar ice: 1999–2005 Arecibo results. Icarus, 211, p37-50. [https://doi.org/10.1016/j.icarus.2010.08.007 doi.org/10.1016/j.icarus.2010.08.007]

File:Radar-bright Deposits near Mercury's North Pole messenger orbit image20120322.jpg

Yoshikawa is south of the slightly smaller Vonnegut crater.