[meteorite-list] Two New Images from MESSENGER's First Flyby of Mercury

From: Jerry <grf2_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Wed, 16 Jan 2008 21:55:11 -0500
Message-ID: <FA3FB46F1F4B4C6EBED803D9195FE55D_at_Notebook>

Do the bright rays indicate a more "recent" impact?
Jerry Flaherty
----- Original Message -----
From: "Ron Baalke" <baalke at zagami.jpl.nasa.gov>
To: "Meteorite Mailing List" <meteorite-list at meteoritecentral.com>
Sent: Wednesday, January 16, 2008 8:36 PM
Subject: [meteorite-list] Two New Images from MESSENGER's First Flyby of
Mercury


>
> http://messenger.jhuapl.edu/news_room/status_report_01_16_08_2.html
>
> MESSENGER Mission News
> January 16, 2008 [Evening Update]
>
> Two New Images from MESSENGER's First Flyby of Mercury
>
> Detailed Close-up of Mercury's Previously Unseen Surface
>
> Just 21 minutes after MESSENGER's closest approach to Mercury on January
> 14, 2008, the Narrow Angle Camera (NAC) took this picture
> <http://messenger.jhuapl.edu/gallery/sciencePhotos/image.php?gallery_id=2&image_id=119>
> showing a variety of intriguing surface features, including craters as
> small as about 300 meters (about 300 yards) across.
>
> This is one of a set of 68 NAC images showing landscapes near Mercury's
> equator on the side of the planet never before imaged by spacecraft.
>>From such highly detailed close-ups, planetary geologists can study the
> processes that have shaped Mercury's surface over the past 4 billion
> years.
>
> One of the highest and longest scarps (cliffs) yet seen on Mercury
> curves from the top center down across the right side of this image.
> (The Sun is shining low from the left, so the scarp casts a wide
> shadow.) Great forces in Mercury's crust have thrust the terrain
> occupying the left two-thirds of the picture up and over the terrain to
> the right. An impact crater has subsequently destroyed a small part of
> the scarp near the top of the image.
>
> This image was taken from a distance of only 5,800 kilometers (3,600
> miles) from surface of the planet and shows a region about 170
> kilometers (about 100 miles) across.
>
> Mercury's Cratered Surface
>
> During its flyby of Mercury, the MESSENGER spacecraft acquired
> high-resolution images of the planet's surface. This image
> <http://messenger.jhuapl.edu/gallery/sciencePhotos/image.php?gallery_id=2&image_id=120>,
> taken by the Narrow Angle Camera (NAC) on the Mercury Dual Imaging
> System (MDIS), was obtained on January 14, 2008, about 37 minutes after
> MESSENGER's closest approach to the planet. The image reveals the
> surface of Mercury at a resolution of about 360 meters/pixel (about
> 1,180 feet/pixel), and the width of the image is about 370 kilometers
> (about 230 miles).
>
> This image is the 98th in a set of 99 images that were taken in a
> pattern of 9 rows and 11 columns to enable the creation of a large,
> high-resolution mosaic of the northeast quarter of the region not seen
> by Mariner 10. During the encounter with Mercury, the MDIS acquired
> image sets for seven large mosaics with the NAC.
>
> This image shows a previously unseen crater with distinctive bright rays
> of ejected material extending radially outward from the crater's center.
> A chain of craters nearby is also visible. Studying impact craters
> provides insight into the history and composition of Mercury as well as
> dynamical processes that occurred throughout our Solar System. The
> MESSENGER Science Team has begun analyzing these high-resolution images
> to unravel these fundamental questions.
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> MESSENGER (MErcury Surface, Space ENvironment, GEochemistry, and
> Ranging) is a NASA-sponsored scientific investigation of the planet
> Mercury and the first space mission designed to orbit the planet closest
> to the Sun. The MESSENGER spacecraft launched on August 3, 2004, and
> after flybys of Earth, Venus, and Mercury will start a yearlong study of
> its target planet in March 2011. Dr. Sean C. Solomon, of the Carnegie
> Institution of Washington, leads the mission as principal investigator.
> The Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory built and
> operates the MESSENGER spacecraft and manages this Discovery -class
> mission for NASA.
>
>
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Received on Wed 16 Jan 2008 09:55:11 PM PST