For more detail go to the link and click on the image for a high definition image. You can then move the magnifying glass cursor then click to zoom in and click again to zoom out. When zoomed in you can scan by moving the side bars on the bottom and right side of the image.
Our moon...nothing there, why should we go back?
Venus...nothing there, why should we go back?
Mars...nothing there, why should we go back?
Mercury...nothing there, why should we go back?
A question on Jeopardy last night was “What’s the hottest planet in the Solar System “? Nobody got it. It was Venus, of course, and nobody got it.
I’m starting to get the feeling that, except for the gas giants like Jupiter and Saturn, every planet, moon, or asteroid out there except ours resembles nothing more spectacular than a well-worn golf ball.
with the spacecraft impacting the surface at nearly 4 kilometers per second (over 8,700 miles per hour) and creating a new crater about 16 meters (52 feet) in diameter.
*****
And thereby destroying all dinosaur life on Mercury.
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.
And in 5 million years you will have “Cilia of Gold”..............