This photo supplied by NASA shows this view of Mercury's rugged, cratered landscape illuminated obliquely by the sun, taken by NASA's Messenger spacecraft on Monday,Jan. 14, 2008. This image was taken from a distance of approximately 11,000 miles, about 56 minutes before the spacecraft's closest encounter with Mercury. It shows a region 300 miles across including craters less than a mile wide. The large, shadow-filled, double ringed crater to the upper right was glimpsed by Mariner 10 more than three decades ago and named Vivaldi, after the Italian composer. (AP Photo/NASA)
NASAs 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 Mercurys 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 Mercurys surface over the past 4 billion years. One of the highest and longest cliffs yet seen on Mercury curves from the top center down across the right side of this image. Great forces in Mercurys 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 cliff 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
Is it just me, or does this look like EVERY picture of our moon that I’ve ever seen?
Photo in the News: First View of Mercury’s “Other Face”
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2008/01/080116-mercury-first.html
Mercury’s spin reveals molten, not solid core
Reuters | Thursday, May 3, 2007 | Julie Steenhuysen
Posted on 05/03/2007 10:51:50 PM EDT by SunkenCiv
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/1828141/posts