Monday, January 21, 2008

Mercury

The cratered expanse pictured above was mostly in darkness 30 years ago when NASA's Mariner 10 spacecraft made the first and (until now) only flybys of Mercury. Last week, MESSENGER caught the terrain in sunlight for the first time.



"These are fantastic images," says Murchie. For one thing, "we've gotten our first good look at Caloris Basin," the biggest known impact crater on Mercury and one of the biggest craters in the entire solar system.

Right: Typical of the images returned by MESSENGER, this horizon shot shows the beautifully shadowed crater named Sholem Aleichem.

Browse the gallery for more.

Full article here.

Source: NASA

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