NASA Snaps First Shots of Mercury From Orbit

Messenger will take 1,200 pictures from 124 miles up

(NEWSER) - NASA's Messenger spacecraft this afternoon will whiz past Mercury at 141,000 mph and snap an estimated 1,200 detailed photos of the planet's surface from a mere 124 miles up. It will be the first of three passes before the craft starts orbiting the planet closest to the sun in 2011. What scientists find could provide clues about how the Earth was formed. More»

Messenger data surprising scientists

(NEWSER) - Mercury is anything but the boring "burnt-out cinder" scientists once believed it was, say researchers analyzing data from NASA's Messenger orbiter. The spacecraft has now spent 88 days—one Mercurian year—circling the planet, and has sent back about 20,000 new pictures that strongly suggest that ice coats parts of the permanently shadowed craters near the planet's poles, reports the Los Angeles Times . More»

(NEWSER) - Mercury's not such a dull planet after all. A new batch of papers in Science spells out evidence of a busy volcanic past and describes an unusual impact crater that would stretch from Boston to DC, reports Wired. The papers, which draw from the October flyby of NASA's Messenger craft, speculate that 40% of the planet's surface was formed by volcanoes. That's a huge shift—prior to Messenger's trip, scientists weren't sure if Mercury had any volcanic activity at all. More»

Messenger spacecraft reveals planets core still molten

(NEWSER) - The planet Mercury is shrinking, the LA Times reports. Data from NASA’s Mercury Messenger spacecraft reveal that the planet’s diameter has shrunk by a mile over its history, probably because its core is cooling. Messenger flew in for a close-up in January, and scientists are now piecing together the new information and re-evaluating some long-held beliefs about the planet. More»

Probe reveals never-before-seen side of Mercury

(NEWSER) - NASA's first probe to Mercury in more than 30 years has made some spectacular finds, including a mysterious new crater dubbed "the spider," Space.com reports. The network of cracks radiating from the impact crater photographed by the probe is like nothing else ever seen in the solar system. "Our little craft has returned a gold mine of exciting data," said the chief scientist. More»