Mercury – Page 4 – Lights in the Dark

MESSENGER’s Day in the Sun

After 7 years and almost 5 billion of miles of traveling around the blistering inner solar system NASA’s MESSENGER spacecraft is finally ready for the moment it was created for: orbital insertion around Mercury, the innermost planet! At 9pm EDT tomorrow MESSENGER will attempt to establish orbit and if successful will become the first spacecraft…

From the LITD Archives: Mercury’s Ancient Scar

One of the largest craters discovered in our solar system, Mercury’s Caloris basin measures in at over 963 miles (1550 km) wide…easily big enough to contain the state of Texas or all of the Great Lakes! This mosaic image shows the huge crater in its entirety – it’s the light-toned region that dominates the central part…

Mercury’s Ancient Scar

Mercury’s Special Scarps

The 300-mile-long long channel cutting across craters on Mercury in this image from MESSENGER was first identified in October of 2008, giving scientists clues to a geologic history found nowhere else in our solar system. Deep cracks like this, found all over the planet, are thought to be caused by the contraction of Mercury as…

A Salty Tail

Sometimes the line between “planet” and “comet” can get a little blurry…especially in Mercury’s case! This video, taken by NASA’s two-piece STEREO (Solar Terrestrial RElations Observatory) spacecraft – consisting of one unit orbiting the Sun just ahead of the Earth and another behind – shows Mercury over a four-day period, shining brightly in the solar…

Picasso, Pits (and other things that start with “P”)

The recently-named Picasso crater on Mercury, shown in the center of this image, is 83 miles wide and features an interestingly-shaped depression in its center that’s thought to have been caused by the collapse of a magma chamber beneath the surface. Features like this are important to planetary scientists because they indicate the existence of…

Details of Rembrandt

Within the 440-mile-wide Rembrandt impact basin on Mercury we find radiating fractures extending across a central plain and a younger sharp-edged crater, the tip of its central peak peeking into the sunlight. This impact basin was discovered by the MESSENGER spacecraft in October of 2008. It is one of the youngest impact basins on Mercury,…

Now With 6% More Mercury!

With the third and last flyby of Mercury by the MESSENGER spacecraft, NASA scientists have now imaged nearly 98 percent of the surface of the first planet from our sun. The photo above shows a color-calibrated view of a crescent Mercury, acquired on September 29. This will be the last close-up color image of Mercury…

From a Distance

The MESSENGER spacecraft took this photo of Mercury on October 10, 2009, from a distance of almost 2 million miles. Just days earlier, MESSENGER flew over the surface of the innermost planet at an altitude of only 140 miles. With no atmosphere to disperse heat, the day side of Mercury can reach nearly 800º F…

Finding Relief

On September 29, 2009 the MESSENGER spacecraft, soaring 10,000 miles above the northern hemisphere of Mercury, captured this image of the rugged terrain of our solar system’s smallest planet. Sharp hills, undulating ridges and craters of all sizes gouge the surface of Mercury, not only the smallest planet but also the densest and least explored,…

First Rock From The Sun

While approaching the planet for the third flyby of its mission, the MESSENGER spacecraft took this photo of Mercury, crescent-lit by the sun and showing terrain that has never been imaged before. The region along the planet’s limb, the brightest area seen here, had yet to be mapped by the spacecraft’s cameras. It contains many…

All About Abedin

This image from the MESSENGER spacecraft shows the crater Abedin, recently named after Bangladeshi painter Zainul Abedin. The 68-mile-wide crater exhibits a central peak structure and is surrounded by lines of smaller craters, most likely caused by the ejected debris from the initial impact. Most of the features on Mercury have been named after the…