MESSENGER's Unique View: A Colorful, Spinning Planet Mercury

By Nancy Atkinson - June 13, 2013 at 2:45 PM UTC | Planetary Science
mercury.jpg

The

MESSENGER mission

has now mapped the entire surface of planet Mercury -- and this is the first time this has even been done. MESSENGER is the first spacecraft to be in orbit of Mercury, and has been there since 2011, with a couple of flybys starting in 2008 as it slowly looped its way into orbit. The seven scientific instruments and radio science investigation on the spacecraft have provided an entirely new view of the planet.

This colorful view of Mercury is, of course,

not

what Mercury would look like to the human eye.

It was created by using images from the color base map imaging campaign during MESSENGER's primary mission. These colors enhance the chemical, mineralogical, and physical differences between the rocks that make up Mercury's surface, allowing scientists to figure out all the different minerals that are on the planet's surface.

The complete map of Mercury was completed and released in February of 2013, and is made of thousands of images taken by MESSENGER. The spinning video map shows Mercury as, really, we've not seen it before, and it is fun to watch features like large rayed craters and basins spin into view.

The MESSENGER team explained the colors:

Young crater rays, extending radially from fresh impact craters, appear light blue or white. Medium- and dark-blue areas are a geologic unit of Mercury's crust known as the "low-reflectance material", thought to be rich in a dark, opaque mineral. Tan areas are plains formed by eruption of highly fluid lavas. The giant Caloris basin is the large circular tan feature located just to the upper right of center of the image.

You can see an image of the other side of Mercury

here,

and the complete gallery of science images and mosaics

here.

Nancy Atkinson

Nancy Atkinson

Nancy Atkinson is a space journalist and author with a passion for telling the stories of people involved in space exploration and astronomy. She is currently retired from daily writing, but worked at Universe Today for 20 years as a writer and editor. She also contributed articles to The Planetary Society, Ad Astra (National Space Society), New Scientist and many other online outlets.

Her 2019 book, "Eight Years to the Moon: The History of the Apollo Missions,” shares the untold stories of engineers and scientists who worked behind the scenes to make the Apollo program so successful, despite the daunting odds against it. Her first book “Incredible Stories From Space: A Behind-the-Scenes Look at the Missions Changing Our View of the Cosmos” (2016) tells the stories of 37 scientists and engineers that work on several current NASA robotic missions to explore the solar system and beyond.

Nancy is also a NASA/JPL Solar System Ambassador, and through this program, she has the opportunity to share her passion of space and astronomy with children and adults through presentations and programs. Nancy's personal website is nancyatkinson.com