Mercury’s Horizon from MESSENGER

Credit: MESSENGER Teams, JHU APL, NASA

What would it look like to fly past Mercury? Just such an adventure was experienced last week by the MESSENGER spacecraft during its first flyby of the strange moon-like world nearest the Sun. Pictured above is the limb of Mercury seen by MESSENGER upon approach, from about 1 1/2 Earth diameters away. Visible on the hot and barren planet are many craters, many appeared to be more shallow than similarly sized craters on the Moon. The comparatively high gravity of Mercury helps flatten tall structures like high crater walls. MESSENGER was able to take over 1,000 images of Mercury which will be beamed back to Earth for planetary geologists to study. The robotic MESSENGER spacecraft is scheduled to fly past Mercury twice more before firing its thrusters to enter orbit in 2011.

MESSENGER Passes Mercury

Credit: MESSENGER Teams, JHU APL, NASA

Two days ago, the MESSENGER spacecraft became only the second spacecraft in human history to swoop past Mercury. The last spacecraft to visit the Sun’s closest planet was Mariner 10 over 35 years ago. Mariner 10 was not able to photograph Mercury’s entire surface, and the images it did send back raised many questions. Therefore, much about planet Mercury remains unknown. This week’s flyby of MESSENGER was only the first of three flybys. Over the next few years MESSENGER will swing past twice more and finally enter Mercury’s orbit in 2011. MESSENGER is currently moving too fast to enter orbit around Mercury now. The above image was taken two days ago during MESSENGER’s flyby and shows part of Mercury’s surface that has never been imaged in detail before. Many more MESSENGER will hopefully help scientists better understand how Mercury’s surface was formed, and why it is so dense.

Mercury Chases the Sunset

Image Credit & Copyright: Doug Zubenel

This colorful view of the western sky at sunset features last Wednesday’s slender crescent Moon. Of course, when the Moon is in its crescent phase it can never be far from the Sun in the sky. Also always close to the Sun in Earth’s sky is innermost planet Mercury, seen here below and right of center against the bright orange glow along the horizon. Mercury is usually difficult to glimpse because of overwhelming sunlight, but increasingly better views of the small planet after sunset will be possible as it wanders farther east of the Sun in the coming days. On January 14th, NASA’s MESSENGER spacecraft will have a good view too, as it