mercury – Secrets of Space https://secretsofspace.com Exploring planets, stars, galaxies, astronomy, the universe and space secrets Tue, 13 Oct 2020 22:42:12 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=4.5.2 Extreme temperatures on Mercury https://secretsofspace.com/extreme-temperatures-on-mercury/ Tue, 24 Mar 2015 14:00:00 +0000 http://secretsofspace.com/?p=1135 Continue reading Extreme temperatures on Mercury ]]> Temperature on Mercury's north pole can be at extremes
Temperature on Mercury’s north pole can be at extremes

This view of Mercury’s north polar region shows the drastic range of temperatures that are seen at the Solar System’s innermost planet. The red areas are greater than 400 K (127° Celsius) while the purple areas are about 50 k (-223° Celsius). While the extremely hot areas seem easy to fathom, the craters near Mercury’s poles have regions that remain permanently in shadow, and in these regions even the maximum temperatures can be extremely low. This picture was taken by the MESSENGER spacecraft using its Mercury Dual Imaging System (MDIS). The Prokofiev crater is the largest one in this picture and can be seen near the top center of the image. It has a diameter of 112 km and can have temperatures below 100 K (-173° clesius) with stable water ice.

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Balanchine, Ailey, Poe and Caloris https://secretsofspace.com/balanchine-ailey-poe-caloris/ Mon, 12 Jan 2015 15:00:00 +0000 http://secretsofspace.com/?p=1010 Continue reading Balanchine, Ailey, Poe and Caloris ]]> Mercury's Poe, Ailey and Balanchine craters and the Caloris basin
Mercury’s Poe, Ailey and Balanchine craters and the Caloris basin

The planet Mercury is chalk full of craters and basins resulting from impacts from all sorts of cosmic debris. This view of the planet taken by the Messenger spacecraft’s wide angle camera shows the landscape with four such impact features. Starting at the lower right we have the Balanchine crater. Near the center of this image is the Ailey crater with its bright floor, resulting from a diverse subsurface composition. At the lower left edge of the above picture we have the Poe crater with its dark edges. And lastly we have part of the Caloris basin visible in the foreground of this image.

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Dark abyss – edge of crater on Mercury https://secretsofspace.com/dark-abyss-edge-crater-mercury/ Fri, 26 Dec 2014 15:00:00 +0000 http://secretsofspace.com/?p=985 Continue reading Dark abyss – edge of crater on Mercury ]]> MDIS spots a dark abyss in a crater on Mercury
MDIS spots a dark abyss at a crater’s edge on Mercury

This picture from the volcanic Mendelssohn basin on Mercury provides a good representation of the planet’s pockmarked surface which is full of impact craters of all sizes. In addition to that we can see a dark abyss from the rim and shadowed wall of a 25 kilometer wide crater that was photographed by the Narrow Angle Camera (NAC) of the Mercury Dual Imaging System (MDIS) on the Messenger probe.

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Scary ghost face on Mercury https://secretsofspace.com/scary-ghost-face-mercury/ Wed, 03 Dec 2014 15:00:00 +0000 http://secretsofspace.com/?p=933 Continue reading Scary ghost face on Mercury ]]> Some see a scary ghost face where other see mountains and craters from Mercury
Some see a scary ghost face where other see mountains and craters from Mercury

We often hear about people seeing shapes in unrelated objects and this is another example of this psychological phenomena (called pareidolia) from the planet Mercury. Here you can see the mountains, the craters and the shadows on this part of Mercury but if you let your imagination loose (a bit) you can also see what looks like a ghost face near the lower right portion of the picture. This scary picture was provided thanks to NASA’s narrow angle camera aboard its MESSENGER space probe.

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Pockmarked surface of Mercury is full of craters https://secretsofspace.com/pockmarked-surface-mercury-full-craters/ Mon, 17 Nov 2014 15:00:00 +0000 http://secretsofspace.com/?p=896 Continue reading Pockmarked surface of Mercury is full of craters ]]> Alver crater, Belgica Rupes and other features of Mercury
Alver crater, Belgica Rupes and other features of Mercury

Mercury is the smallest planet in our solar system and closest to (our) Sun. Its surface is pockmarked with craters of varying size, resulting from what we assume was a heavy dose of asteroids, comets and other space matter crashing into it. This picture was taken by the Messenger space probe which has been studying Mercury for over ten years. At the bottom right of this picture is the Alver crater, while the 760 kilometer long Belgica Rupes region can be seen at the top.

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Craters on Mercury https://secretsofspace.com/craters-mercury/ Wed, 29 Oct 2014 14:00:00 +0000 http://secretsofspace.com/?p=848 Continue reading Craters on Mercury ]]> NASA
Messenger photographs craters on planet Mercury

NASA’s MESSENGER mission to Mercury continues its exploration of the planet by photographing its surface, including this picture taken close to the Rustaveli crater area. The largest crater here is about 1.5 miles across while the smaller ones range down to 20 or 30 meters. The white streak in the largest crater, visible against the darkenss of the crater’s abyss, is a cosmic ray hitting the Narrow Angle Camera’s CCD sensor.

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Lunar eclipse as seen from Mercury https://secretsofspace.com/lunar-eclipse-mercury/ Mon, 20 Oct 2014 14:00:00 +0000 http://secretsofspace.com/?p=864 Continue reading Lunar eclipse as seen from Mercury ]]> Messenger probe photographed the lunar eclipse while in Mercury's orbit
Messenger probe photographed the lunar eclipse while in Mercury’s orbit

While many of Earth were gazing up on October 8, 2014 to catch the total lunar eclipse, NASA’s Messenger space probe was also watching. It used the on-board narrow angle camera – from its far away station, in orbit of the planet Mercury to capture the eclipse. The picture of the left shows the normal view of the Earth and Moon from Mercury (two very bright points in space about 107 million kilometers away). During the lunar eclipse, the Moon disappears from view on Mercury as it makes its passage through the Earth’s shadow (as seen on the right).

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Volcanic vent on Mercury https://secretsofspace.com/volcanic-vent-on-mercury/ Mon, 01 Sep 2014 14:00:00 +0000 http://secretsofspace.com/?p=749 Continue reading Volcanic vent on Mercury ]]> Mercury - NASA
Volcanic vent on planet Mercury

The wide angle camera on MESSENGER spacecraft’s Mercury Dual Imaging System (MDIS) took this snapshot of an area on Mercury located north of Rachmaninoff. It captured a possible volcanic vent (near the far left of the picture) and craters to the right of the volcanic vent. These type of vents on are indicative of explosive volcanism that was prevalent in Mercury’s past.

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Raditladi basin on Mercury https://secretsofspace.com/raditladi-basin/ Mon, 18 Aug 2014 14:00:00 +0000 http://secretsofspace.com/?p=668 Continue reading Raditladi basin on Mercury ]]> Raditladi - NASA
Raditladi basin on the planet Mercury

The Raditladi basin on Mercury is believed to be a relatively young formation, showing very few impact craters. The crater has a diameter of 257.7 km (160.1 miles). This eleven colour view of Raditladi was taken by the MESSENGER spacecraft using its Wide Angle Camera (WAC) and more clearly shows the depressions (also called hollows) within the basin, shown by the areas in white.

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Egonu crater on Mercury https://secretsofspace.com/egonu-crater-mercury/ Wed, 23 Jul 2014 14:01:00 +0000 http://secretsofspace.com/?p=610 Continue reading Egonu crater on Mercury ]]> Egonu - NASA
The Messenger space craft took this picture of the Egonu crater on Mercury

The polar region of the planet Mercury is home to the Egonu crater, named after the late Nigerian artist, Uzo Egonu. This image was acquired as a high-resolution targeted observation by NASA’s Messenger spacecraft, using its Narrow Angle Camera (NAC). Messenger (Mercury Surface, Space, Environment, Geochemistry and Ranging) is a collaboration between NASA, Johns Hopkins University and the Carnegie Institute for Science to do an orbital study of the planet in our solar system which is closest to the Sun.

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