We Demand Answers!
The latest flyby of the planet Mercury has sent back a stream of images for NASA scientists. Today, they released the very first image from the MESSENGER probe.
Scientists are sifting through their first new views of the planet Mercury in more than three decades thanks to images beamed home by NASA's MESSENGER probe.
The car-sized spacecraft zipped past Mercury in a Monday flyby and is relaying more than 1,200 new images and other data back to eager scientists on Earth.
"Now it's time for the scientific payoff," MESSENGER principal investigator Sean Solomon of the Carnegie Institution of Washington told SPACE.com after the flyby. "It's just a complete mix of results that we're going to get."
In one new image, released today, the planet's stark surface is shown peppered with small craters, each less than a mile (1.6 km) in diameter and carved into an area about 300 miles (482 km) across. MESSENGER used its narrow-angle camera to photograph the scene, which is dominated by a large, double-ringed crater dubbed Vivaldi after the Italian composer. While the crater was last seen by NASA's Mariner 10 probe, MESSENGER's camera observed it with unprecedented detail, researchers said.
The image released is this one:
We direct our reader's attention to the right side of the image. Now we demand to know whether AOL managed to get product placement for their AIM logo! The probe is called MESSENGER, after all….
By sam, Thursday, 17 January , 2008 @ 12:40 pm
Sorry, Gaius, I don’t see it.
By Gaius, Thursday, 17 January , 2008 @ 12:45 pm
I made up a superimposed version on another comp. I’ll try to remember to post it.
By NortonPete, Thursday, 17 January , 2008 @ 12:53 pm
Next week the Chinese will release the same photo with an extra crater or two taken their flyby probe.
By NortonPete, Thursday, 17 January , 2008 @ 3:56 pm
This is off topic. BA just had a 777 deadstick a landing of sorts at Heathrow. The pilot glided the 777 for what appears to be fair distance.
I’m thinking fuel starvation, but they say that’s impossible.
http://news.sky.com/skynews/article/0,,70131-1301161,00.html