The features this image from MESSENGER's Oct. 6, 2008 flyby shows never-before seen terrain. The region in the foreground near the right side of the imag is close to the border between darkness and daylight, so shadows are long and prominent. Two very long scarps are visible in this region, and the scarps appear to crosscut each other. The easternmost scarp also cuts through a crater, showing that it formed after the impact that created the crater. Other neighboring impact craters, such as in the upper left of this image, appear to be filled with smooth plains material. Credit: NASA/JHUAPL/CIW. (Photo from Live Science)From Live Science:
A NASA probe has begun beaming back stunning new images from its successful second flyby of Mercury, the planet closest to the sun.
NASA's MESSENGER probe captured never-before-seen views of the Mercury during its encounter on Monday. The spacecraft zipped past Mercury for the second time this year and used the planet's gravity to adjust its path as it continues en route to become the first probe to orbit the planet in March 2011.
One new image shows large patterns of ray-like lines extending southward across much of the planet surface from a young, newly-imaged crater. The previously-imaged Kuiper crater and others craters also have similar webs of lines radiating outward.
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