Spacecraft Reveals Stunning New Views of Mercury

By Jeremy Hsu, Staff Writer

posted: 7 October 2008 11:15 am ET

: This view is one of the first from the MESSENGER probe's Oct. 6, 2008 flyby of Mercury. The bright crater south of the center of the image is Kuiper, identified on images from the Mariner 10 mission in the 1970s. For most of the terrain east of Kuiper, toward the limb (edge) of the planet, the views are the first ever of that portion of Mercury. Credit: NASA/JHUAPL/CIW.
: MESSENGER successfully flew by Mercury on Oct. 6, 2008, using Mercury's gravity to help put it on track to become the first spacecraft ever to orbit the innermost planet in the Solar System in March 2011. This image as acquired about 89 minutes before the craft's closest approach. Credit: NASA/JHUAPL/CIW.
: The features this image from MESSENGER's Oct. 6, 2008 flyby shows never-before seen terrain. The region in the foreground near the right side of the imag is close to the border between darkness and daylight, so shadows are long and prominent. Two very long scarps are visible in this region, and the scarps appear to crosscut each other. The easternmost scarp also cuts through a crater, showing that it formed after the impact that created the crater. Other neighboring impact craters, such as in the upper left of this image, appear to be filled with smooth plains material. Credit: NASA/JHUAPL/CIW.
: This portion of Mercury's surface was previously imaged under different lighting conditions by Mariner 10, but this new MESSENGER image mosaic is the highest-resolution color imaging ever acquired of any portion of Mercury's surface from its Oct. 6, 2008 flyby. The largest impact feature at the top of the image is about 133 kilometers (83 miles) in diameter and is named Polygnotus. Credit: NASA/JHUAPL/CIW.

A NASA probe has begun beaming back stunning new images from its successful second flyby of Mercury, the planet closest to the sun.

NASA's MESSENGER probe captured never-before-seen views of the Mercury during its encounter on Monday. The spacecraft zipped past Mercury for the second time this year and used the planet's gravity to adjust its path as it continues en route to become the first probe to orbit the planet in March 2011.

One new image shows large patterns of ray-like lines extending southward across much of the planet surface from a young, newly-imaged crater. The previously-imaged Kuiper crater and others craters also have similar webs of lines radiating outward.

Another raw picture represents the highest-resolution color image ever taken of Mercury's surface, and came just 9 minutes after the spacecraft's closest approach to Mercury at 4:43 a.m. EDT (0845 GMT). Details include a large impact basin with an 83-mile (133-km) diameter, named Polygnotus for a Greek painter from the 5th century B.C.

Yet a third first-time image came from MESSENGER's approach to the crescent-shaped Mercury, and is one of 44 pictures taken as part of a mosaic. Scientists hoped to collect nine image mosaics total in order to add up to 30 percent of never-before-seen regions of the planet's surface.

The second Mercury flyby of Oct. 6 comes after a first flyby on Jan. 14, which looked at a different side of the planet.

"When these data have been digested and compared, we will have a global perspective of Mercury for the first time," said Sean Solomon, MESSENGER's principal investigator at the Carnegie Institution of Washington.

Launched in August 2004, MESSENGER - short for MErcury Surface, Space ENvironment, GEochemistry, and Ranging - is the first spacecraft in 33 years to greet Mercury up close since NASA's earlier Mariner 10 mission of the 1970s. The new probe is slated for a third Mercury flyby in 2009 before finally settling into orbit on March 18, 2011. MESSENGER's $446 million mission is expected to spend about a year studying Mercury.