* Astronomy

Members Login
Username 
 
Password 
    Remember Me  
Post Info TOPIC: MESSENGER


L

Posts: 131433
Date:
RE: MESSENGER
Permalink  
 


A newly discovered crater on Mercury may have been geologically active as recently as a billion years ago. The discovery was made by NASA's Mercury Surface, Space Environment, Geochemistry and Ranging (MESSENGER) spacecraft on its latest fly-by of the innermost planet of the Solar System on 29 September.

"It's the youngest terrain we've yet seen on Mercury" - Clark Chapman a planetary scientist at the Southwest Research Institute in Boulder, Colorado, and part of the MESSENGER mission team.

The crater, about 260 kilometres in diameter, does not have a formal name, but because it looks similar to a basin named Raditladi, discovered in early 2008, it has been informally dubbed Twin.

Read more

__________________


L

Posts: 131433
Date:
Permalink  
 

mer290909b91.jpg
Expand (144kb, 1018 x 1024)
Credit: NASA/Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory/Carnegie Institution of Washington


This image was captured on the 29th September, 2009, by the Narrow Angle Camera (NAC) aboard the Messenger spaceprobe, when it was 15,900 kilometres away from Mercury.
The image shows smooth plains and lava flooded craters which are evidence of volcanism on the planet.
The image scale is 400 metres/pixel


__________________


L

Posts: 131433
Date:
Permalink  
 

mer290909b90.jpg
Expand (93kb, 993 x 1113)
Credit: NASA/Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory/Carnegie Institution of Washington


This mosaic was captured on the 29th September, 2009, by the Narrow Angle Camera (NAC) aboard the Messenger spaceprobe, about 78 minutes prior to closest approach, when it was 16,200 kilometres away from Mercury.
The NAC acquired 62 high-resolution images of not previously imaged terrain.

__________________


L

Posts: 131433
Date:
Permalink  
 

mer290909b93.jpg
Expand (132kb, 1018 x 1024)
mer290909b94.jpg
Expand (42kb, 560 x 560)
Credit: NASA/Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory/Carnegie Institution of Washington

This image was captured on the 29th September, 2009, by the Narrow Angle Camera (NAC) aboard the Messenger spaceprobe, when it was 15,000 kilometres away from Mercury.
The image shows the rim of the Rembrandt impact basin (highlighted in Red) with two scarps (cliffs that have been highlighted in the image by yellow arrows). The scarps were created by deformation due to faulting (highlighted with blue arrows).
The image scale is 390 metres/pixel

__________________


L

Posts: 131433
Date:
Paw print crater
Permalink  
 


New photo of planet Mercury shows "paw print" crater
This one should send conspiracy theorists rushing for the comfort of their X-Files collections. A NASA photo from the Mercury Surface Space Environment, Geochemistry and Ranging spacecraft, or MESSENGER, shows an arrangement of craters that looks like a giant paw print.


Read more

__________________


L

Posts: 131433
Date:
RE: MESSENGER
Permalink  
 


mer290909b82.jpg
Expand (192kb, 1018 x 1024)
Credit: NASA/Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory/Carnegie Institution of Washington


This image was captured on the 29th September, 2009, by the Narrow Angle Camera (NAC) aboard the Messenger spaceprobe, when it was 15,300 kilometres away from Mercury.
This image shows, near the center, a large, fresh crater with central peak structures, and associated small secondary craters and crater chains.
The image  resolution is 400 meters/pixel.

__________________


L

Posts: 131433
Date:
Permalink  
 

mer290909b80.jpg
Expand (205kb, 1024 x 1024)
Credit: NASA/Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory/Carnegie Institution of Washington


This image was captured on the 29th September, 2009, by the Narrow Angle Camera (NAC) aboard the Messenger spaceprobe, about 78 minutes prior to closest approach, when it was 16,200 kilometres away from Mercury.
This image shows the terminator, the dividing line between the sunlit and night side of the planet. The prominent crater near the middle of the left edge of the image is approximately 100 kilometres in diameter.

__________________


L

Posts: 131433
Date:
Permalink  
 

mer061009b2.jpg
Expand (192kb, 720 X 1400)
Credit: NASA/Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory/Carnegie Institution of Washington



These images all show the same region on Mercury.
The image on the left was captured on the Messenger spaceprobes second flyby, on the 6th October 2008. The image on the right was captured on the 29th September, 2009, by the Narrow Angle Camera (NAC) aboard the Messenger spaceprobe.
The images below are simple cylindrical projections of them, with a few bright craters which are labelled with letters to help locate the other features.
The distance from "A" to "B" in the lower panel is about 300 kilometres.

__________________


L

Posts: 131433
Date:
Permalink  
 

mer290909b50.jpg
Expand (254kb, 1018 X 1024)
Credit: NASA/Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory/Carnegie Institution of Washington


This image shows a bean-shaped pit-floor crater inside the large crater near the center. The pit-floor craters may be evidence of volcanic processes.
The image was captured on the 29th September, 2009, by the Narrow Angle Camera (NAC) aboard the Messenger spaceprobe when it was 15,200 kilometres away.
The image scale is 390 metres/pixel.


__________________


L

Posts: 131433
Date:
Permalink  
 

mer031009b1.jpg
Expand (49kb, 1024 x 1024)
Credit: NASA/Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory/Carnegie Institution of Washington

This series of images were captured between the 3rd to the 4th October, 2009, 2009, by the Wide Angle Camera (WAC) aboard the Messenger spaceprobe, when it was between 1,030,000 and 1,500,000 kilometres away from Mercury.
The images show the differing phase angles as the spaceprobe travelled away from the planet.

__________________
«First  <  14 5 6 7 818  >  Last»  | Page of 18  sorted by
Quick Reply

Please log in to post quick replies.



Create your own FREE Forum
Report Abuse
Powered by ActiveBoard