A New Side of Mercury

NASA’s MESSENGER spacecraft has orbited Mercury and has taken gorgeous images of the surface of the planet closest to the sun. Over 1000 high resolution images were taken and Earth received the first photographs on October 6, 2008. A wide-angle camera on MESSENGER took the photos. The images have given NASA a better understanding of the geography of Mercury.

 

The pictures revealed many new craters never before seen by human eyes. This has been made possible by the high-resolution photos being taken so close to the planet. In the past, Earth telescopes have observed the planet and in the mid 1970s, the Mariner 10 photographed less than half of the planet after flying by it three times. In MESSENGER’s first flyby, it received images of 20% of the surface and an additional 30% during its second flyby. As you can see, MESSENGER is a very advanced spacecraft capable of taking better and more pictures over a shorter period.

 

After Earth receives all of the images and MESSENGER has completed its rounds, NASA will have a global perspective of Mercury and will completely understand its geography, therefore gaining a better understanding of our solar system. Mercury was discovered long ago, but we are just scratching the surface on how the planet is made up and there is a whole planet of information yet to be discovered.