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15 July 2010
Latest Look at Mercury Reveals Surprises
Younger volcanoes, stronger magnetic storms and a more intriguing exosphere: three new papers from data gathered during the MESSENGER spacecraft's third flyby of Mercury in September of last year provide new insights into the planet closest to our Sun. The new findings make the science teams even more anxious for getting the spacecraft into orbit [...]
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15 December 2009
MESSENGER Team Releases First Global Map of Mercury
The first-ever global mosaic map of Mercury was released today, which will be a critical tool for the MESSENGER mission's observations of the planet when it enters orbit in 2011. The map was created from images taken during MESSENGER’s three flybys of Mercury – the most recent of which took place in September 2009 [...]
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03 November 2009
Mercury Gives Up More Secrets to MESSENGER
Even though the MESSENGER spacecraft experienced a "hiccup" during its third and final flyby of Mercury on Sept. 29, scientists are still pleased and surprised by the data garnered. The spacecraft went into safe mode, shutting down temporarily because of a power system switchover during a solar eclipse as it approached the planet and [...]
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05 October 2009
Massive Mosaic of Mercury
If you want to REALLY see Mercury up close and personal, take a look at this absolutely HUGE mosaic of the planet. It was put together by Jason Perry, who actually works with the Cassini mission but in his spare time stitched together 66 images from the MDIS narrow angle camera from the [...]
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01 October 2009
More New Looks at Mercury from MESSENGER
ore new images were released today from the MESSENGER spacecraft's third flyby of Mercury. I asked astrophysicist Dr. Jeff Goldstein (doctorjeff on Twitter), (who was on hand at the mission operations center to blog and Tweet about the flyby) which image the science team found most intriguing, and he replied that it was really hard [...]
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30 September 2009
MESSENGER Went Into Safe Mode Approaching Mercury
The MESSENGER spacecraft went into safe mode just before its closest approach of Mercury on Sept. 29. Although the instruments were taking data as the spacecraft came near the planet during this third flyby of the mission, after going into safe mode, no further data or pictures were obtained. This means the expected [...]
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24 September 2009
Third and Final Flyby of Mercury for MESSENGER Next Week
Next week, on September 29, 2009 the MESSENGER spacecraft will fly by Mercury for the third and final time, looking at areas not seen before in the two previous passes. The spacecraft will pass 141.7 miles above the planet’s rocky surface, receiving an a final gravity assist that will enable it to enter orbit [...]
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15 July 2009
Mercury's Craters Get Artsy New Names
The MESSENGER mission has been revealing more of Mercury's surface, including plenty of craters so interesting that geologists have been christening them with names. The International Astronomical Union released new names for 16 impact craters this week. All of the craters were discovered during the flyby in October, which is also when MESSENGER snapped these images–five [...]
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03 June 2009
How Magnetic Tornadoes Might Regenerate Mercury’s Atmosphere
Compared to Earth, Mercury doesn’t have much of an atmosphere.  The smallest rocky planet has weak surface gravity, only 38% that of Earth.  And the scorching-hot daytime surface temperatures of 800 degrees Fahrenheit (approximately 450 degrees Celsius) should have boiled away any trace of Mercury’s atmosphere long ago.  Yet recent flybys of the MESSENGER spacecraft [...]
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04 May 2009
NASA Selects New Projects to Study Mars and Mercury
Making good on its promise to work together with other space agencies, NASA has selected two science instruments that will fly on board European Space Agency (ESA) spacecraft, one heading to Mars on the ExoMars rover, the other to Mercury with the BepiColombo orbiter. “The selections will further advance our knowledge of these [...]
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30 April 2009
New Mysteries Unveiled on Mercury
Even though Mercury looks like the Moon at first glance, scientists from the MESSENGER mission say it’s becoming apparent that Mercury is an amazingly dynamic planet, and is actually more like Mars. For example, before this mission, scientists weren’t sure if volcanism even existed on Mercury, but from the spacecraft’s two flybys, they now [...]
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29 October 2008
More Mercury from MESSENGER
Scientists from the MESSENGER mission to Mercury discussed today the results from the spacecraft's October 6 flyby of the closest planet to the sun. The probe has produced several science firsts and is returning hundreds of new photos and measurements of the planet's surface, atmosphere and magnetic field. The images show a battered surface, [...]
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07 October 2008
A Different Side of Mercury
Here's the first image from MESSENGER's flyby of Mercury on Monday. The bright crater just south of the center of the image is Kuiper, which has been seen before on images from the Mariner 10 mission in the 1970s. But most of this image, to the east, or right of Kuiper, toward the limb of [...]
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06 October 2008
MESSENGER's Second Flyby of Mercury Complete
This morning at 4:40 am EDT, the MESSENGER spacecraft passed only 200 kilometers (124 miles) above Mercury’s surface as it made its second flyby of the mission. Now, the spacecraft is speeding away from Mercury, continuing its science observations for about 20 hours following closest approach. This flyby should provide the first global perspective [...]
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06 October 2008
MESSENGER's Second Flyby of Mercury: Awaiting Data
This morning at 4:40 am EDT, the MESSENGER spacecraft passed only 200 kilometers (124 miles) above Mercury’s surface as it made its second flyby of the mission. Now, the spacecraft is speeding away from Mercury, continuing its science observations for about 20 hours following closest approach. This flyby should provide the first global perspective [...]
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