And it looks a lot like our moon…below is an artists rendition, and below the “Continue reading…” line is the actual image. From the MESSENGER website:
Early this morning, at 5:20 am EDT, MESSENGER captured this historic image of Mercury. This image is the first ever obtained from a spacecraft in orbit about the Solar System’s innermost planet. Over the subsequent six hours, MESSENGER acquired an additional 363 images before downlinking some of the data to Earth.
The MESSENGER team is currently looking over the newly returned data, which are still continuing to come down. Tomorrow, March 30, at 2 pm EDT, attend the NASA media telecon to view more images from MESSENGER’s first look at Mercury from orbit.
The dominant rayed crater in the upper portion of the image is Debussy. The smaller crater Matabei with its unusual dark rays is visible to the west of Debussy. The bottom portion of this image is near Mercury’s south pole and includes a region of Mercury’s surface not previously seen by spacecraft. Compare this image to the planned image footprint to see the region of newly imaged terrain, south of Debussy. Over the next three days, MESSENGER will acquire 1185 additional images in support of MDIS commissioning-phase activities. The year-long primary science phase of the mission will begin on April 4, and the orbital observation plan calls for MDIS to acquire more than 75,000 images in support of MESSENGER’s science goals.
Click on image to enlarge. |
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Date acquired: March 29, 2011
Image Mission Elapsed Time (MET): 209877871
Image ID: 65056
Instrument: Wide Angle Camera (WAC) of the Mercury Dual Imaging System (MDIS)
Center Latitude: -53.3°
Center Longitude: 13.0° E
Resolution: 2.7 kilometers/pixel (1.7 miles/pixel)
Scale: Debussy has a diameter of 80 kilometers (50 miles)
MESSENGER has delivered its first image since entering orbit about Mercury on March 17. It was taken today at 5:20 am EDT by the Mercury Dual Imaging System as the spacecraft sailed high above Mercury’s south pole, and provides a glimpse of portions of Mercury’s surface not previously seen by spacecraft. The image was acquired as part of the orbital commissioning phase of the MESSENGER mission. Continuous global mapping of Mercury will begin on April 4.
“The entire MESSENGER team is thrilled that spacecraft and instrument checkout has been proceeding according to plan,” says MESSENGER Principal Investigator Sean Solomon, of the Carnegie Institution of Washington. “The first images from orbit and the first measurements from MESSENGER’s other payload instruments are only the opening trickle of the flood of new information that we can expect over the coming year. The orbital exploration of the Solar System’s innermost planet has begun.”
Several other images will be available Wednesday, March 30, in conjunction with a media teleconference at 2 p.m. EDT to discuss the initial orbital images taken from the first spacecraft to orbit Mercury. Media teleconference participants are:
— Sean Solomon, MESSENGER principal investigator, Carnegie Institution of Washington
— Eric Finnegan, MESSENGER mission systems engineer, Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory, Laurel. Md.
To participate in the teleconference, reporters must contact Dwayne Brown at dwayne.c.brown@nasa.gov or 202-358-1726 for dial-in instructions. During the teleconference, MESSENGER information and images will be available at http://www.nasa.gov/messenger and http://messenger.jhuapl.edu/news_room/presscon8.html.
Audio of the teleconference will be streamed live on NASA’s website at: http://www.nasa.gov/newsaudio.
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Before the successful use of rockets some scientists said it is impossible to generate enough power to escape the gravity of Earth. Where would we not be if the science had been settled on that claim? Send more pictures.
Not to seem underwhelm but it looks like Tyco .. on the moon.
I hope there is something more interesting somewhere else on Mercury.
Re Chris Smith
That’s a short sighted view, much like the current US administration. The pictures are neat, but Messenger also carries other instruments like the gamma, neutron and xray spectrometers. Those should tell us more about what it’s made from.
Currently we’re told to recycle and conserve because of resource shortages, yet there are gigatonnes of resources above our heads. Getting up there currently is expensive, getting resources back down is less so. Yet NASA seems to be looking inward rather than out.
TrueNorthist says:
March 29, 2011 at 8:28 pm
wesley bruce says:
March 29, 2011 at 7:57 pm
Sounds like the backdrop of a Larry Niven novel!
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Nah, Larry Niven would either move it away from the sun or, even better, use it as a base to station solar powered laser cannons to blast those stupid cats out of the sky!
mr.artday
March 29, 2011 at 8:12 pm
The last I heard, you could not ship cut diamonds from Mars at a profit. The infrastructure and fuel costs, especially if there are humans on board, more than consume all the profits.
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What a stupid thing to say. I hope you are not dumb enough to believe such greeny silliness. Do you have any idea what a diamond from Mars is worth?
Amazing picture and can’t wait to see some more!
Interesting how most of the craters are circular. This would mean that most of the impacts must have been normal to the surface of the sphere. I wonder what caused that???
Way, WAY COOL! The resolution is excellent! In the lower right quadrant, a ridge/rift feature can be seen running diagonal (NW-SE) across a series of craters, suggesting perhaps some active faulting or tectonics.
It was photos just like this that inspired a young lad (me) to complete BS/MS degrees in Metallurgical Engineering and go to work for McDonnell Douglas Astronautics many years ago!
AndyW35 says:
March 29, 2011 at 9:51 pm
“So it’s got craters. I would never have guessed. Rather boring…”
Andy – I will never be that jaded and uninspired. Ever.
To many of us, the wonders of the Firmament are a sirens call, begging us to take the next step in human exploration and evolution. They sing to us like a sultry femme fatale, stirring us to risk fortunes, hazards, and heartbreaks in the exploration of every curve, limb, and feature of these heavenly bodies!
DesertYote says:
March 30, 2011 at 7:18 am
TrueNorthist says:
March 29, 2011 at 8:28 pm
wesley bruce says:
March 29, 2011 at 7:57 pm
“Nah, Larry Niven would either move it away from the sun or, even better, use it as a base to station solar powered laser cannons to blast those stupid cats out of the sky!”
To beer is human but to lap up devonhshire cream with whiskey is a Kzin!
So if we got images; why do we need artists”impressions” ? Sounds like more modelling output to me.
Your artist has missed out a key feature visible in the real photo – one one also visible on the Martian and lunar surfaces – the tendency of smaller, later craters to cluster around the edge of the larger craters – a feature inexplicable in conventional theories, but fully treated at the Electric Universe site.
Andrew30
Wind turbine shadow…..
Object travelling nearer the sun are at perigee of their solar orbits and are travelling at a higher velocity than those further from the sun, so the impacts are surely more powerful there than farther out.
Most objects orbit the sun on the same general plane as the planets. Strikes are less likely near the poles.
Assuming we ever again elect a President with courage, our first lunar base should be located at a pole, sheltered in a crater for added safety.
Thank goodness for our atmospheric shield!
Mercury is ugly. There, I said it. It can never again be unsaid.
geoff;
“inexplicable”? You seriously underestimate Dr. Laaf Svalgeird. Or whoever.
Damn! Now they’ll have to find names for all those craters..