More stunning pictures of Mercury from MESSENGER spacecraft...Dial Up Warning

[SaveElmer]

During its flyby of Mercury on Jan. 14, 2008, NASA’s MESSENGER spacecraft acquired high-resolution images of the planet's surface. This image shows a previously unseen crater with distinctive bright rays of ejected material extending outward from the crater's center. A chain of craters nearby is also visible. Studying impact craters provides insight into the history and composition of Mercury as well as dynamical processes that occurred throughout our solar system. This image is one of 99 taken by the spacecraft to enable the creation of a large, high-resolution mosaic of the northeast quarter of the region. Credit: NASA/Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory/Carnegie Institution of Washington

NASA’s MESSENGER spacecraft captured this image on January 14, 2008, during its closest approach to Mercury. The image reveals a variety of intriguing surface features, including craters as small as 300 yards across. The image also shows landscapes near Mercury’s equator on the side of the planet never before imaged by spacecraft. These highly detailed close-ups enable planetary geologists to study the processes that have shaped Mercury’s surface over the past 4 billion years. One of the highest and longest scarps cliffs yet seen on Mercury curves from the top center down across the right side of this image. Great forces in Mercury’s crust have thrust the terrain occupying the left two-thirds of the picture up and over the terrain to the right. An impact crater has subsequently destroyed a small part of the scarp near the top of the image. This image was taken from a distance of 3,600 miles from surface of the planet and shows a region approximately 100 miles across. Credit: NASA/Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory/Carnegie Institution of Washington

http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/messenger/multimedia/index.html

[Sugar Smack]

1. Thank you for that.

:D

[Supersedeas]

11. yes, many thanks

[riqster]

2. Puts we humans in our place. nt

[karlrschneider]

3. I'm almost sure I can see the footprints of an SPD robot by that one crater!

:D

[alfredo]

4. Tell bush Mercury has oil then send him there to beg for it.

[yurbud]

5. Bush thinks planets are what he chops down in photo ops at the ranch

''Karl says I got chop the bushes and other planets in the yard so I look like I can work.''

[alfredo]

6. Letting him handle a chainsaw is scary.

[Orsino]

7. But symbolic of his presidency. n/t

[alfredo]

8. so true

[yurbud]

10. you would think they'd keep him from sharp objects after all those scrapes on his face

[Canuckistanian]

14. He couldn't find oil in Texas

How could he possibly find oil on Mercury?

[originalpckelly]

9. Sort of looks like the moon.

Mercury is ugly compared to the gas giants!

[mdmc]

12. kick

:kick:

[mdmc]

13. kick