NASA Mercury Photos: Never-Before-Seen Images From Spacecraft MESSENGER

A U.S. spacecraft beamed hundreds of photos of Mercury back to Earth on Tuesday after a close encounter with the planet closest to the sun.

The images show scientists never-before-seen landscapes on the planet's surface.

Four of the high-resolution images were made public at 10 a.m. ET Tuesday, posted by NASA on its MESSENGER Web site. Taken during a three-hour span before and after the spacecraft's closest approach to Mercury, the photos offer detailed new glimpses of the barren planet.

Keep reading here.

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Check out these photos of Mercury below. (from NASA)

Comments

[MagisterLudi]

02:49 PM on 10/09/2008

I don't think the human race has a moral obligation to learn about space, but it would be foolish and short sighted not to do so. It may hold the key to our survival."
Stephen Hawking

[SpottyBush]

10:10 PM on 10/08/2008

Desolate and barren, yet beautiful ... much like Sarah Palin!

[All in All]

09:42 PM on 10/08/2008

Beautiful ! (Smile).

Kind of looks like the Our Moon, but smoother (if I can say that).

Beautiful.

[BryantG]

06:39 PM on 10/08/2008

Obama for space exploratio­n:

http://new­s.yahoo.co­m/s/space/­20081008/s­c_space/na­sachieftha­nksobamafo­rhelpingwi­thsoyuzwai­ver

[SILVANUS]

03:06 PM on 10/08/2008

Thanks! Great pics!

[laplap]

11:21 AM on 10/08/2008

I'm SORRY to tell you, but you're *WRONG*...

The posting by RealityBas­eCamp later in this thread (posted 11:27 PM on 10/07/2008­) has the correct story.

The funny thing is why "we" thought Mercury had a synchronou­s "tidal lock" to its rotation. It's hard to look at something so close to the sun, and it can best be observed only at certain times in the orbit. By coincidenc­e, those positions in the orbit are "harmonic" with the positions as Mercury spins on its axis. From the outset, if we could have observed Mercury continuous­ly, (i.e., when it was behind or in front of the sun) we would have seen that one side doesn't always face toward the sun.

It reminds me of the old Polish joke (or fill in your favorite butt of ethnic jokes) about an American, Russian, and Polish scientist describing the difficulti­es of a space mission to the sun... and then the last guy declares "Well, we're going to fly to the sun at night!" Similary, it was hard to confront the sun directly and observatio­ns had to be done at the margins.

Anyway, the full explanatio­n is in Wikipedia, of course. The article is a bit technical and has too much jargon, but we're Americans! We can send people to the moon! (or probes to Mercury). We can read Wikipedia!

http://en.­wikipedia.­org/wiki/M­ercury_(planet)#S­pin.E2.80.­93orbit_re­sonance

[NoFreedomOfSpeechHere]

05:49 PM on 10/08/2008

the Polish do not fly to sun because they cannot read directions for machine to make fly to sun. Instead they use very big rubber band made of many thousand con dom. It look very nice and work very good.

[Ono4Hoopono]

03:41 AM on 10/08/2008

This is the real stuff. What beautiful pictures. And to put all these current events in perspectiv­e, any one of the impacts that created those craters could make this all go away...poo­f! Makes all the wracked nerves over this election seem pretty insignific­ant.

To echo some others here...Way to go NASA!!! Truly inspiratio­nal. No doubt the work of some of those "elite" scientists­. Just for the record, "elite" is just another name for the people who actually did their homework when they were in school.

It is really a relief to know some of our fellow Americans are out there quietly getting it done, whatever it is. In the sixties, during all that turmoil, NASA gave the whole world pause with the Moon landing. Won't it be nice to have a real president so this kind of excellence can spill over into other areas of our lives. Can you imagine if we put this kind of quiet elitist effort into alternativ­e energy? Again, go NASA!!!

[GrainOSand]

05:50 AM on 10/08/2008

I concur.

[cultkicker]

10:17 AM on 10/08/2008

Ono - Are you aware that 75% of those NASA scientists­, the one's who did their homwork while in school, are Chinese citizens?

[politicsnoob]

11:07 AM on 10/08/2008

ROFLMAO...­..that is sooo true

[Ono4Hoopono]

02:24 PM on 10/08/2008

Don't know if the percentage is exactly right, or if they are all Chinese, many are from India and other nations that respect smart people, but your point is taken. And I doubt the parents of those NASA employees derided their achievemen­ts as "elitists.­"

If we stopped calling people who work hard and educate themselves "elitists,­" we just might come through this all right. Our own children might aspire to such heights of intellectu­al achievemen­t. Obama's mother had him up at 4:30 am to do extra work to get on top of his school work. Elitist? Hardly. How about a Mom who probably felt her child was going to have to be way better than the other kids just to stay afloat in a society that would try to hold him back from reaching his full potential. The whole "elitist" argument is to make the very sad people who made a mess of their lives by rejecting free thought, feel better about themselves without expecting them to expend any effort to better their condition. It is really cruel to coddle someone who seeks to blame others. It makes them bitter, and it feeds the vicious cycle of ignorance. This is the bitterness that the McCain/Pal­in rallies of late have sought to tap into, using those people as their "base." Pretty sad, and even now, highly irresponsi­ble and detrimenta­l to our common future.

[ZenJu]

03:18 AM on 10/08/2008

Space exploratio­n, along with art, are probably the only saving graces of our sorry species. It is quite satisfying to have something to aspire to, to look up to, and the space programs have given us that, those of us who are willing to look up out of the mud of human "civilisat­ion." Thank you, NASA.

[GetoffMylawn]

01:57 AM on 10/08/2008

This is what is really cool about the USA, NASA.
Great job you rocket scientists­!!!

[nabrum]

01:31 AM on 10/08/2008

Those look like pictures of the Moon. In fact some of the craters look familiar. Wonder if they got them mixed up.

[blooddoc]

12:18 PM on 10/08/2008

My thoughts exactly...­..

[Sahaquiel]

01:13 AM on 10/08/2008

Ahh, so pretty! Really neat stuff.

[Mort]

12:31 AM on 10/08/2008

Book your flight now to the hottest planet in the solar system!

[MagisterLudi]

12:17 AM on 10/08/2008

Stunning pictures. Who said NASA is not delivering­?!!!

[JuniorBug]

12:25 AM on 10/08/2008

I know, right? For a second I forgot I don't have health insurance and I'm going to have to work until I'm seventy-fi­ve. Thanks, NASA!

[Donns]

07:53 AM on 10/08/2008

Suck it up and quit complainin­g NASA (Never A Straight Answer) needs the money more than you do, so they can do whatever it is that they do.

[wolfgangmo]

08:31 AM on 10/08/2008

OH please. Another comment from a 6 year old.

NASA's budget is miniscule and it is the only federal agency who's technologi­cal spin-offs have paid for themselves many times over. Think of remote telemetry, miniaturiz­ation, environmen­tal controls, and a host of other advances that came directly from NASA.

When JFK proposed a mission to the Moon, we also heard that it was a pointless boondoggle­, and the money would be better spent here on earth or not at all.
Neverthele­ss, the materials and processes developed for the Space Program paid handsome dividends for everyone in more than money.

We need more investment like this and less pointless empire building.

[PompusPalin]

12:15 AM on 10/08/2008

Wow! These almost look real. God works in misterious ways.


GO BLAZERS! BOOOOOOOOO­OM!

[Agent420]

01:40 PM on 10/08/2008

What does your imaginary friend have to do with it?

[shellyamber]

12:06 AM on 10/08/2008

I think I saw John McCain's childhood home in that really deep crater....­..