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THE BIG PICTURE: A NEW VIEW OF MERCURY

NASA’s Messenger spacecraft provided a new view of Mercury, the closest planet to our sun, this week when it flew past and snapped some images of previously unmapped portions of the planet. Here are some of the stunning images Messenger captured during the flight…

NASA’s Messenger spacecraft provided a new view of Mercury, the closest planet to our sun, this week when it flew past and snapped some images of previously unmapped portions of the planet. The robot-controlled craft, which passed within 200 kilometres of the Mercury’s surface flew past as part of a mission which will eventually see it enter the planet’s orbit in 2011. The fly-by of Mercury was the first since Mariner 10 did so in March, 1975. Here are some of the stunning images Messenger captured during the flight… 

                   

Mercury as seen by NASA’s Messenger spacecraft on 14th January, 2008. This observation was the first of its kind since the planet was glimpsed by Mariner 10 more than three decades ago. Messenger captured this view of the planet’s rugged, cratered landscape illuminated obliquely by the sun. This image was taken from a distance of approximately 11,000 miles, about 56 minutes before the spacecraft’s closest encounter with Mercury. It shows a region 300 miles across including craters less than a mile wide. PICTURE: NASA/Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory/Carnegie Institution of Washington.

                  

This image was taken by NASA’s Messenger spacecraft at a distance of approximately 17,000 miles following the spacecraft’s closest approach to Mercury. The image shows features as small as six miles in size. Similar to previously mapped portions of Mercury, this hemisphere appears heavily cratered. It also reveals some unique and distinctive features. On the upper right is the giant Caloris basin, including its western portions never before seen by spacecraft. Formed by the impact of a large asteroid or comet, Caloris is one of the largest, and perhaps one of the youngest basins in the solar system. PICTURE: NASA/Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory/Carnegie Institution of Washington. 

                   

As NASA’s Messenger spacecraft drew closer to Mercury for its historic first flyby, the spacecraft acquired this image showing a variety of surface textures, including smooth plains at the center of the image, numerous impact craters and rough material that appears to have been ejected from the large crater to the lower right. Messenger has acquired over 1200 images of Mercury. These types of images will assist scientists to study, as never before, details to help them learn about the history and evolution of the innermost planet. Credit: NASA/Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory/Carnegie Institution of Washington

www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/messenger/main/index.html

 

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