[meteorite-list] MESSENGER Dances by Matisse

From: Ron Baalke <baalke_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Wed, 23 Jan 2008 15:14:13 -0800 (PST)
Message-ID: <200801232314.PAA08805_at_zagami.jpl.nasa.gov>

http://messenger.jhuapl.edu/news_room/status_report_01_23_08.html

MESSENGER Mission News
January 23, 2008

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MESSENGER Dances by Matisse

As MESSENGER approached Mercury on January 14, 2008, the Narrow Angle
Camera (NAC) of the Mercury Dual Imaging System (MDIS) snapped this
image
<http://messenger.jhuapl.edu/gallery/sciencePhotos/image.php?gallery_id=2&image_id=134>
of the crater Matisse. Named for the French artist Henri Matisse, the
Matisse crater was imaged during the Mariner 10 mission and is about 210
kilometers (130 miles) in diameter. Matisse crater is in the southern
hemisphere and can be seen near the terminator of the planet (the line
between the sunlit, day side and the dark, night side) in both the color
<http://messenger.jhuapl.edu/gallery/sciencePhotos/image.php?gallery_id=2&image_id=132>
and single-filter, black-and-white
<http://messenger.jhuapl.edu/gallery/sciencePhotos/image.php?page=1&gallery_id=2&image_id=123>
images released previously that show an overview of the entire incoming
side of Mercury.

On Mercury, craters are named for people, now deceased, who have made
contributions to the humanities, such as artists, musicians, painters,
and authors. The International Astronomical Union (IAU) oversees the
official process of naming new craters and other new features discovered
on bodies throughout the solar system. Scientists studying and mapping
unnamed features can suggest names for consideration by the IAU. The
1,213 images taken by MESSENGER during its first flyby encounter with
Mercury cover a large region of Mercury's surface previously unseen by
spacecraft, revealing many new craters and other features that will need
to be named.

------------------------------------------------------------------------

Additional information and features from MESSENGER's first flyby of
Mercury are online at http://messenger.jhuapl.edu/mer_flyby1.html.

------------------------------------------------------------------------

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.
Received on Wed 23 Jan 2008 06:14:13 PM PST