The Ahmad Baba crater, named after a 16th/17th century African writer, is a classic peak rising basin on the planet Mercury. This picture was taken by NASA’s Messenger spacecraft at low altitude (just 184 km above Mercury’s surface) during its second extended mission exploring the planet Mercury.
The planet Mercury, which lies closest to the Sun has an exosphere instead of an atmosphere that includes oxygen, sodium, hydrogen, helium, potassium and other trace chemicals. Astrophysicist Eylene Pirez, who is a researcher at the Particle Beam Physics Lab (PBPL) at UCLA, provides a more detailed breakdown of the chemical gases that are found in Mercury’s exosphere.
NASA in collaboration with CalTech, University of Arizona and Johns Hopkins University, manages the Messenger spacecraft whose mission was to be the first to orbit, explorer and study the innermost planet of our solar system, Mercury. This picture shows the 62 km wide crater Kuiper, photographed by Messenger’s wide angle camera. This is an important stratigraphic marker in Mercury’s geologic history as Kuiper and the surrounding area consists of rock that was melted by the impact with whatever it was, that created this crater.
This picture of Earth was taken by Alan Shepard on May 5, 1961 as part of NASA’s Mercury Redstone 3 space mission. The historic MR-3 launch allowed Shepard to become the first American (and second person) in space. He likely took this picture of Earth through the on board periscope. The 15 minute mission was put into orbit by an extended and up-powered version of the US Army’s Redstone ballistic missile – forming the Redstone Launch Vehicle.
