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| Science & Technology |
| Spacecraft beams home new images of Mercury |
| 2008-01-20 |
| Scientists are sifting through their first new views of the planet Mercury in more than three decades thanks to images beamed home by NASA's MESSENGER probe. The car-sized spacecraft zipped past Mercury in a Monday flyby and is relaying more than 1,200 new images and other data back to eager scientists on Earth. "Now it's time for the scientific payoff," MESSENGER principal investigator Sean Solomon of the Carnegie Institution of Washington told SPACE.com after the flyby. "It's just a complete mix of results that we're going to get." In one new image the planet's stark surface is shown peppered with small craters, each less than a mile (1.6 km) in diameter and carved into an area about 300 miles (482 km) across. MESSENGER used its narrow-angle camera to photograph the scene, which is dominated by a large, double-ringed crater dubbed Vivaldi after the Italian composer. While the crater was last seen by NASA's Mariner 10 probe, MESSENGER's camera observed it with unprecedented detail, researchers said. Another new view reveals the first look at the half of Mercury left uncharted by Mariner 10. "It is already clear that MESSENGER's superior camera will tell us much that could not be resolved even on the side of Mercury viewed by Mariner's vidicon camera in the mid-1970s," said MESSENGER researchers at the Johns Hopkins University's Applied Physics Laboratory (JHUAPL) in a Wednesday statement. JHUAPL engineers built MESSENGER for NASA and are managing its $446 million mission for the space agency. |
| Posted by:Fred |
| #6 "GLOBAL COOLING" > ICE AGE versus MINI-ICE AGE versus NORMAL EXPANSION [Variable Star] versus PRE-NOVA EXPANSION [Its goona blow]. HOW "MINI" = LONG IS A "MINI-ICE AGE", etc. sciens questionnez ??? |
| Posted by: JosephMendiola 2008-01-20 19:34 |
| #5 GLOBAL WARMING = the SUN. PLANETARY WARMING = the SUN. GLOBAL DHIMMITUDE > GLOBAL DIMMING? = the SUN. versus "DAY AFTER TOMORROW" > "SOLAR OUTPUT IS NORMAL", e.g. THE WORLD IS WARMING BECUZ SOLAR OUPTPUT IS "NORMAL"? IMO only this mission is just a PC cover for the USG-NASA to collect info on the Sun. among other methods - MERCURY IS OUR CLOSEST PLANET TO THE SUN + NASA WANTS TO KNOW HOW THE SUN = SOL IS AFFECTING IT + BY EXTENS INNER PLANETS. IOW, THE USG-NASA HAVE DOUBTS ABOUT CURR SOLAR MODELS-THEORIES AND WANT CERTAINTY. |
| Posted by: JosephMendiola 2008-01-20 19:30 |
| #4 So much for my 1950's style SF hopes of a glowing yellow "Flame People" living on its fiery surface... Borgboy is sad Mercury loks only like a hot barren rock... |
| Posted by: borgboy2001 2008-01-20 11:18 |
| #3 Better pictures here. |
| Posted by: Deacon Blues 2008-01-20 09:03 |
| #2 Any signs of a Russian flag down there? Perhaps the taillights of another Russian probe? |
| Posted by: gorb 2008-01-20 03:30 |
| #1 Huh! Going to Iran for the latest news from NASA. |
| Posted by: Throger Thains8048 2008-01-20 01:05 |