Mercury Update
A great success for science and space exploration today: MESSENGER has just successfully taken its new imagery and tests of Mercury — the first exploration vehicle to reach Mercury in 30 years. Photos should start streaming in tomorrow. The last mission, Mariner 10 — whew think of it: 1974 — what kind of digital pictures could you take 30 years ago, and then fling across the cosmos back to Earth? Hardly any! Mariner 10 was like flinging a brick at a tiny hard to get to planet. It was pre-pc, pre-mac, pre-everything. In contrast Messenger will take reams and reams of data, sending it back routinely. Assuming all goes well, Messenger will settle into full orbit around Mercury by 2011. For now, science teams should get loads of new surface data. What are the big questions about the planet?
What does the other side look like, the side that Mariner 10 never photographed?
Is there ice in its craters or on its dark side?
Why is Mercury so dense?
Why is it so magnetic?
Answers to such questions may reveal a lot about how planets are formed. Or perhaps the data will prompt completely new mysteries. Preliminary space news at Space.com
These two NASA images of Mercury show some of the curiosities. The left is an old b/w composite from 1974 Mariner missions. The right is a fairly new composite based on the old data. It’s a fascinating image because it shows the invisible, sort of. That funny blank band is a region of the planet that’s never been photographed — for the artistry, an interesting way to show missing data!
