Posted on 01/30/2008 2:39:31 PM PST by NormsRevenge
WASHINGTON - The first pictures from the unseen side of Mercury reveal the wrinkles of a shrinking, aging planet with scars from volcanic eruptions and a birthmark shaped like a spider.
Some of the 1,213 photos taken by NASA's Messenger probe and unveiled Wednesday help support the case that ancient volcanoes dot Mercury and that it is shrinking as it gets older, forming wrinkle-like ridges. But other images are surprising and puzzling.
The spidery shape captured in a photo is "unlike anything we've seen anywhere in the solar system," said mission chief scientist Sean Solomon of the Carnegie Institution of Washington. The image shows what looks like a large crater with faint lines radiating out from it.
Mercury, the closest planet to the sun, has often been compared to Earth's dull black-and-white moon. But the new photos, which reveal parts of Mercury never seen, show the tiny planet is more colorful and once had volcanic activity.
With the help of NASA high-tech enhancement, Messenger photos showed baby blues and dark reds.
"It has very subtle red and blue areas," said instrument scientist Louise Prockter of Johns Hopkins University, which runs the Messenger mission for NASA. "Mercury doesn't look like the moon."
The last time a NASA spacecraft went to Mercury was Mariner 10 in 1975. It took pictures of just 45 percent of the planet.
Messenger, which will do a couple more flybys of the planet before going into a long-term orbit, already has taken pictures of another 30 percent of Mercury, Prockter said.
above pic is Nasa image of something on surface
Mercury Messenger Web site: http://messenger.jhuapl.edu/
IB4TBFP (In before the Bush’s fault post)
They are calling image above The Spider.
Oh, oh, sounds like a serious case of “Mercuric Warming.” We need to send Al Gore up there immediately!
Is it a lonely Lost Sperm?
Now that we know this stuff, I wonder what kinds of taxes the lefties are going to come up with in order to stop this from happening to that poor planet. It doesn’t appear that there are many taxpayers on Mercury so I guess we’ll have to do it.
Whatever it was it spattered rather than digging a crater.
I've been watching too much CSPAN.
Planetary Safe-T-Glass for meteors.
I can’t wait until MESSENGER gets in orbit. The high resolution images should be able to give some decent dating values to these ridges. I’m curious how old these ridges are. I would guess that decent dating of these features would give a pretty good understanding of the interior dynamics of the planet.
It is interesting that the Moon doesn’t have these features and that Mercury doesn’t have maria. It would appear that Mercury cooled much faster than the Moon (so that the maria didn’t have time to form on Mercury and so that the crust on the Moon had time to relax). I would bet that this would be due to a much higher accretion energy per unit mass. This should be easy to disprove if the dating on these features is younger than ~3 billion years. We’ll know in a couple of years.
NASA probe to fly past little, sun-baked Mercury
(NASA’s car-sized MESSENGER spacecraft)
Reuters on Yahoo | 1/10/08 | Will Dunham
Posted on 01/10/2008 5:18:43 PM EST by NormsRevenge
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/1951662/posts
Spacecraft speeds by Mercury (within 124 miles)
AP on Yahoo | 1/14/08 | AP
Posted on 01/14/2008 4:19:17 PM EST by NormsRevenge
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/1953624/posts
Spacecraft Beams Home New Images of Mercury (Nasa’s Messenger)
Space.com on Yahoo | 1/16/08 | Tariq Malik - ap
Posted on 01/16/2008 9:49:26 PM EST by NormsRevenge
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/1954948/posts
(Humor) New NASA Photo Reveals Mercury Space Pirate
Tanniker Smith via the Daily Mail | 1/17/08 | Tanniker Smith
Posted on 01/17/2008 12:31:27 PM EST by Tanniker Smith
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/1955242/posts
historically:
Short Trip for Mercury Probe
space.com | 2 Jan 04 | staff
Posted on 01/02/2004 7:36:15 PM EST by RightWhale
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1050607/posts
Mission space craft mission...To Mercury!
http://messenger.jhuapl.edu/ | None
Posted on 07/03/2004 3:41:07 AM EDT by God bless America-5
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1164726/posts
Spacecraft to Begin 6 1/2-Year Journey to Mercury;
First Visit to Tiny Planet in 30 Years
The Associated Press | Jul 25, 2004 | Marcia Dunn
Posted on 07/25/2004 12:32:57 PM EDT by BenLurkin
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1178181/posts
Spacecraft to Begin Journey to Mercury
AP | 7/25/04 | Marcia Dunn
Posted on 07/25/2004 10:06:41 PM EDT by LibWhacker
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1178432/posts
Mercury Will Become the Next Planet to Get Its Close-Up
NY Times | July 27, 2004 | Warren E. Leary
Posted on 07/28/2004 10:37:55 PM EDT by neverdem
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1180611/posts
also related:
Mercury/Vulcanoid Sounding Rocket Launch
(Live Sounding Rocket Webcast from WSMR)
Southwest Research Institute | January 9, 2004 | Alan Stern/SwRI
Posted on 01/10/2004 3:28:46 AM EST by MikeD
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/1055205/posts
SwRI suborbital science payload gets the goods on Mercury, searches for Vulcanoids
SpaceRef.com | January 23, 2004 | SwRI
Posted on 01/23/2004 9:52:08 PM EST by MikeD
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1064155/posts
Was Mercury a “hit-and-run” planet?
MSNBC Space News | Jan. 11, 2006 | By Robert Roy Britt
Posted on 01/26/2006 1:26:47 AM EST by Swordmaker
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/1565199/posts
Mercury’s spin reveals molten, not solid core
Reuters | Thursday, May 3, 2007 | Julie Steenhuysen
Posted on 05/03/2007 10:51:50 PM EDT by SunkenCiv
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/1828141/posts
I don’t buy what this video tries to sell, but it is interesting...
Conspiracy of Science - Earth is in fact growing
http://youtube.com/watch?v=VjgidAICoQI
It’s Mercury’s belly button.
Come on Freepers, someone is slipping. Now whose fault is this?
Why look! It’s Mercury’s butt hole!
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.
