Messenger's second Mercury flyby

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RedFox

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Messenger's second of three flybys of Mercury before getting into orbit is happening today. The closest approach will be on the night side within 200km of the surface within two hours of this writing.

The Planetary Society Blog | The Planetary Society
MESSENGER Web Site

Most recent image at this time: http://messenger.jhuapl.edu/gallery/sciencePhotos/image.php?gallery_id=2&image_id=212

The part seen here haven't been seen by spacecraft before. On the other side is more unseen area, including the gap in Mariner 10 coverage dating back to the 1970s. Beyond the edge of the Mariner 10 coverage, we'll see a rayed crater in the southern hemisphere that looks pretty in the Earth based radar maps and will find out what it looks like in visible light soon enough.

Here's an Arecibo radar image of this crater.

http://www.psrd.hawaii.edu/WebImg/HarmonRadarFig2.jpg

Rougher areas are radar-bright due to more of the radar getting scattered back to the antenna. So are areas tilted towards the antenna like the sides of mountains.

About radar imaging:

http://southport.jpl.nasa.gov/desc/imagingradarv3.html
 
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Hopefully we will get many fascinating images from the Messenger afterward. :) I love to look at neat images from planets and stars outside our Earth.
 
Go here and see the new pictures.

The big rayed crater in the south I knew about from the radar coverage is in the place where Celestia showed it. :D It's the first time it had been seen in visible light. MESSENGER: MErcury Surface, Space ENvironment, GEochemistry, and Ranging

The rayed crater in the middle is already known from Mariner 10. The one in the north was known from radar, but I didn't realize the rays extended so far from it. :eek:

The new view sure looks different from the one from the first flyby, which gave us our first full view of the Caloris Basin, which lead to an increase in the size estimation of the huge impact basin.
 
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