New Views of Mercury October 7, 2008
Posted by sarah in: science , trackback
Mercury Unseen.
I blogged before about the MESSENGER probe’s second flyby of the planet Mercury that took place yesterday morning. Images have now been officially released and they’re fabulous – see them here! Remember that much of Mercury’s surface had never been seen by humans before in any detail.
Particularly impressive are the bright streaks or ‘rays’ emanating from craters stretching over huge lengths across the planet’s surface. SImilar features are also seen on the surface of the Moon.
MESSENGER will carry out a third flyby next September before settling into a stable orbit around the planet around March 2011. So there’s much much more to look forward to!
Image credit: NASA/Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory/Carnegie Institution of Washington
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