zorg.ch
6:55 Uhr
Events
Forum
Games
Wetten
Rezepte
Tauschbörse
Books
Space
User
Übersicht
Astronomy Picture of the Day
MESSENGER Passes Mercury
Bild Note: 4.5
(2 Votes)
⏴ previous
Bild Upload von 18.02.2016 21:43
next ⏵
zorg.ch
#105304
by
[z]Barbara Harris
@
17.01.2008 00:00
- nach oben -
MESSENGER Passes Mercury
Explanation:
Two days ago, the MESSENGER spacecraft became only the
second spacecraft in human history to swoop past Mercury.
The last spacecraft to visit the Sun's closest planet was
Mariner 10
over
35 years ago
.
Mariner 10 was not able to
photograph Mercury
's entire
surface
, and the
images it did send back
raised many questions.
Therefore, much about
planet Mercury
remains unknown.
This week's flyby of
MESSENGER
was only the first of three flybys.
Over the next few years
MESSENGER will swing past
twice more and finally enter Mercury's orbit in 2011.
MESSENGER is currently moving too fast to enter orbit around Mercury now.
The
above image
was taken two days ago during MESSENGER's flyby and shows part of Mercury's surface that has
never been imaged
in detail before.
Many more
detailed images of Mercury
are expected to be sent back over the next few days.
The data acquired by
MESSENGER
will hopefully help scientists
better understand
how Mercury's surface was formed, and why it is so dense.
Note:
Today's APOD image has been updated.
The latest MESSENGER images are
here
.
Credit & Copyright