A Look At The Planet Mercury

Purple marks low elevation and white high elevation in this rendering of ancient volcanic plains in Mercury’s northern hemisphere. Images like these suggest the planet had an active geologic past.NASA, JHUAPL, CIW-DTM, GSFC, MIT, Brown University. Rendering by James Dickson and Jim Head.

Smallest Planet Yields Big Surprises -- Science News

Mercury has a complicated inside and an active geologic past.

For starters, the planet’s interior is built differently than anything else scientists have blueprints for. Unlike Earth’s, Mercury’s core — which gobbles up 85 percent of the planet’s radius — consists of three layers instead of two. At the planet’s heart lies a probable solid layer, surrounded by a swirling liquid iron layer, all encapsulated by a third, solid iron-sulfur layer.

The new MESSENGER results were presented on March 21 at the Lunar and Planetary Science Conference, as well as in two papers appearing online in Science. One paper discusses the gravity measurements leading to the new model of the planet’s interior, and the other describes surface features in the northern hemisphere.

Read more ....

High-Res Images of New Territory on Mercury

From Wired Science:

Flying within 228 kilometers of the surface of Mercury on Sept. 29, the Messenger spacecraft snapped portraits of a portion of the planet that had never before been imaged close up.

Messenger also examined in greater detail Mercury’s western hemisphere, which had been imaged during a previous passage in October 2008 (SN Online: 10/29/08).

Read more ....

NASA's Messenger Is Approaching Mercury

Image credit: NASA/Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory/Carnegie Institution of Washington.

From Discovery Channel:

Sept. 28, 2009 -- Tomorrow, NASA's MESSENGER (MErcury Surface, Space ENvironment, GEochemistry and Ranging) spacecraft will make its third and final flyby of the Solar System's innermost planet, Mercury. After coming within 142 miles to the small planet's rocky surface, the robotic probe will be flung back into interplanetary space before arriving in Mercury orbit in 2011 for a year-long mission to study the planet in unprecedented detail.

Read more ....

Mercury Ready For A Rare Close-Up

NASA/Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory/Carnegie Institution of Washington

From USA Today:

Mercury gets a close look Monday, when NASA's Messenger spacecraft slings 142 miles over the puny planet closest to the sun. For mission scientists, it's a festive occasion.

"A planetary flyby is very much like Christmas morning for the science team. We know there are presents under the tree," says Messenger principal investigator Sean Solomon of the Carnegie Institution of Washington. "We expect to be surprised and we expect to be delighted."

Read more ....