Credit: NASA/Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory/Carnegie Institution of Washington
NASA’s MESSENGER (MErcury Surface, Space ENvironment, GEochemistry, and Ranging) spacecraft entered orbit about Mercury in mid-March. The probe’s one-year study of Mercury that is now underway is providing exciting science.
After its first Mercury solar day (176 Earth days) in orbit, MESSENGER has nearly completed two of its main global imaging campaigns: a monochrome map and a color map.
Apart from small gaps, which will be filled in during the next solar day, these global maps now provide uniform lighting conditions ideal for assessing the form of Mercury’s surface features as well as the color and compositional variations across the planet.
Shown here are orthographic views, centered at 75 degrees E longitude.
Each mosaic consists of thousands of individual images.
At right, images taken through the spacecraft’s wide-angle camera filters at various wavelengths are displayed in red, green, and blue, respectively.
The Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory built and operates the MESSENGER spacecraft and manages this Discovery-class mission for NASA.
For a review of several new findings thanks to the NASA-sponsored MESSENGER mission, go to:
http://messenger.jhuapl.edu/news_room/details.php?id=185
By Leonard David