NASA Spots Mysterious 'Spider' on Mercury

NASA Spots Mysterious 'Spider' on Mercury ^ | 30 January 2008, 3:54 pm ET | Clara Moskowitz

[Calvin Locke]

Or, you can just subscribe to the RSS feed...

http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod.rss

[SunkenCiv]

Note: this topic is from January.

The photos, released today, include one of a feature the scientists informally call "the spider," which appears to be an impact crater surrounded by more than 50 cracks in the surface radiating from its center.

Planet Mercury is shrinking, volcanic and Spacecraft Beams Home New Images of Mercury (Nasa's Messenger) are related, and (Humor) New NASA Photo Reveals Mercury Space Pirate is almost related.

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[Swordmaker]

It is not truly unique. Look at these Martian Spiders:

It actually also compares quite well with Tycho Crater on the Moon which is, under the electric universe theory, not an impact crater but an electric discharge "lightning" pimple—a huge one, but a lightning pimple none-the-less— with the striations approaching it the remnants of the underground paths of the amassing electrons as they rush to join the massive plasma arc leaving the moon.

Tycho Crater is raised above the surrounding terrain, and stria do not line up with point of impact.
Sharing another feature with the Mercurian Spider and laboratory created "Lightning Pimples", Tycho and the spider have a raised center peak.

Note the striations, that have always been explained as ejecta paths, do NOT point directly toward (or away from) the center of "impact." They cannot be ejecta paths which would follow a ballistic path directly away from the point of impact. Note also that the stria on the Mercury Spider also do not point directly away from the point of impact.

On the left: An electrical discharge to a negatively charged surface, recorded on a photographic plate. On the right: A Martian “spider.”

[Nik Naym]

Aspergillus Niger?

You racist.

[Excuse_My_Bellicosity]

Cool! Yeah, I was kinda wondering how really unique the Mercury “spider” is. I was thinking that it was either volcanic or an asteroid hit from when the surface was still semi-molten, but I wouldn’t consider lightning (or other electrostatic discharge) a bad theory at all.