Astronomy Picture of the Day - MESSENGER's Last Day on Mercury

NASA ^ | 1 May, 2025 | Image Credit: NASA, Johns Hopkins Univ. APL, Arizona State Univ., CIW

[HandyDandy]

That is from the days when we were only limited by our imaginations.

[AFB-XYZ]

As is Enceladus also.

[AFB-XYZ]

Sorry, I had the wrong planet, Enceladus actually belonging to Saturn, not Jupiter.

[MtnClimber]

Venus is hot because women are from Venus. But, Mars is cold. It just occurred to me.

[telescope115]

Well, they were talking surface temperature, but technically, you could be right….

[MikelTackNailer]

But, Mars is cold. It just occurred to me.

And not the place to raise your kids.

[Nateman]

Since Mercury is so close to the Sun a stable orbit was not possible. Messenger had to do orbital corrections to maintain orbit. Of course it eventually ran out of the fuel needed to stay in orbit so it crashed.

[Waverunner]

I'm sorry the correct answer is "Miami Beach"..

[Red Badger]

And in 5 million years you will have “Cilia of Gold”..............

[telescope115]

A little too warm for me….🙂

[Waverunner]

But they are a binary system.

[minnesota_bound]

#6 I came across this the other day:

If the Earth was flat, cats would have pushed everything over the edge by now.

[Dan in Wichita]

As a cat owner, I can verify this to be true. I have one cat in particular who takes great joy pushing things off to watch them fall.

[cuban leaf]

We won’t live long enough to see it, but I suspect Mars and beyond will not be simply a destination for rich vacationers.

---

I was a huge fan of Star Trek, TOS, but as I’ve watched tech advance enough, just in the short time since that series was on, to believe that it is as unlikely in the 23rd century to have human beings manning exploratory ships (like the Enterprise in the series) as it is unlikely to have transporter beams. It makes no sense when one carries forward the robot and IA tech of the early 21st century a couple of centuries.

That is, unless we discover some sort of unlimited and cheap power source as well as tech that allows instantaneous travel between any points in the universe.

Frankly, I also don’t think the Lord will wait that long. As much as I’m fascinated by modern tech, I think it will be our undoing, and in short order. I think we’re even seeing the beginning stages of it.

Stay tuned.

[cuban leaf]

To be fair, I recently found out that Jupiter HAS no surface, at all. So there is that. 😁

I always thought that “gas giant” meant it had a really deep atmosphere with a relatively small planet at the core. I think that is what I was taught in public schools (graduated in 1972). But based on what I’m seeing now on the internet, it’s “gas of a sort” all the way down. Of course, the pressure as you get into it probably gives something more like liquid, but still...

[Dan in Wichita]

That is, unless we discover some sort of unlimited and cheap power source as well as tech that allows instantaneous travel between any points in the universe.

According to Star Trek TOS, that's what Dilithium crystals will do!

[cuban leaf]

😉😁

Yeah. I confess that my opinion depends on certain types of future tech being invented (better robots and AI) or not being invented (transporter beems or exploitation of dilythium crystals) 😎