Nobody?s ever seen Mercury in such detail, or color.
The first images of the planet in 30 years provide rich close-ups of ridges, cliffs and compound crater formations, all in high-resolution color.
The last images of Mercury had been captured more than three decades ago, by Mariner 10.
Messenger?s wide-angle camera, part of the Mercury Dual Imaging System, is equipped with 11 narrow-band color filters, says Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory, which released the images.
“The flyby is similar to one orbit of the planet; it?s going to go over one region of the planet as it flies around,” said Edgar Rhodes, a project instrument scientist for APL. “And it will be flying somewhat faster than it will be during regular orbit, so you have less opportunity to take data.”
When Messenger enters its final orbit in March 2011, researchers will have access to a wealth of images and information about the planet?s surface, APL says.
Combining images taken through different filters in the visible and infrared, Messenger allows Mercury to be seen in a variety of high-resolution color views not previously possible.
The images are the result of a joint project between NASA, APL and the Carnegie Institution of Washington.
One crescent-shaped color image shows a view of Mercury on Jan. 14, about 80 minutes before Messenger reached its closest pass, approximately 17,000 miles from the surface.
Subtle color variations indicate different rock types, giving the Messenger team data on a variety of minerals and rocks on Mercury?s surface that will be studied for years. Such information will be key to addressing fundamental questions about how Mercury formed and evolved.
Mercury has a diameter of about 3,030 miles, and the smallest feature visible in this color image is about 6 miles across.
On the web
See new imagesof Mercury at messenger.jhuapl.edu
