Analysis of MESSENGER high‐resolution images of Mercury's hollows and implications for hollow formation

High resolution images from MESSENGER provide morphological information on the nature and origin of Mercury's hollows, small depressions that likely formed when a volatile constituent was lost from the surface. Because graphite may be a component of the low-reflectance material that hosts hollows, we suggest that loss of carbon by ion sputtering or conversion to methane by proton irradiation could contribute to hollows formation. Measurements of widespread hollows in 565 images with pixel scales