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| ©NASA/Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory/Carnegie Institution of Washington |
NASA's Messenger spacecraft made the first human visit to Mercury in 33 years when it flew by the planet on Monday. Mercury's last visitor from Earth, Mariner 10, was able to photograph about half of the planet's surface. Messenger was able to return images of about half of the never-before-seen surface of the planet.
Guess what they found in the new images? Craters. But they do show off new geological features and a history of the planet. The area at the top right of this image is called the Caloris basin, which was probably formed by an impact with an asteroid or comet. The brighter color shows that it may have a different composition of soil than the rest of the planet.
To save money on fuel, Messenger has been trying to slow itself down by bouncing off the gravity pulls of Earth, Venus, and now Mercury for the three years since it was launched. Messenger will fly by Mercury two more times before it will be slow enough to enter orbit around the planet in 2011.
Here is another never-before-seen area of Mercury. Craters as small as 300 yards in diameter can be seen in an image taken shortly after the spacecraft's closest encounter with the planet. Of note is the large cliff that runs from the top center and down to the right. It casts a giant shadow.
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| ©NASA/Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory/Carnegie Institution of Washington |
In another new view, Messenger reveals a crater with bright rays of ejected material (right).
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| ©NASA/Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory/Carnegie Institution of Washington |
The double-ringed crater on the right appears to be filled with smooth material--perhaps volcanic--in another first look at Mercury. Just south of it is a scarp (cliff) that may have been a fault system.
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| ©NASA/Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory/Carnegie Institution of Washington |
This image of Mercury's horizon shows smooth plains near the center of the photo and a 120-mile wide crater named Sholem Aleichem in the lower right. Rough materials appear to have been ejected from this crater
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| ©NASA/Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory/Carnegie Institution of Washington |
The Vivaldi crater (upper right) was first seen in photos from Mariner 10, but more details from the Messenger photos showed off features such as a depression just south of the crater.
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| ©NASA/Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory/Carnegie Institution of Washington |
This series of images shows how Mercury looked to the Messenger spacecraft as it approached the planet from January 9 to January 13.
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| ©NASA/Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory/Carnegie Institution of Washington |
