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First Results From Messenger's Mercury Flyby

Posted by kdawson on from the hot-stuff dept.

Several readers noted the special section in Science, published today, with results from Messenger's flyby of Mercury last January. One conclusion is that volcanism has shaped the planet, contrary to earlier theories that Mercury had been "dead on arrival." The LA Time's coverage highlights the finding that Mercury has shrunk by a mile in diameter over its lifetime, due to shrinkage at its core.

3 of 48 comments (clear)

  1. Discoveries for the taking by spaceyhackerlady · · Score: 5, Insightful

    This is why we do it. We haven't paid much attention to Mercury, so almost everything there is new, just waiting to be discovered. Who knows what else we will find?

    ...laura

    1. Re:Discoveries for the taking by tokul · · Score: 2, Insightful

      We haven't paid much attention to Mercury,

      Or it is harder to get to Mercury than to LEO, Moon or Mars.

  2. Slightly OT : And still no colour picture! by 4D6963 · · Score: 5, Insightful

    All this time after the flyby, and still no real-colour picture of the planet, as they're literally sitting on it. They have entire mosaics of the planet taken in all the probes 11 filters, including red, green and blue filters, and yet they can't be arsed to put those together to finally let use see Mercury in its truest colours!

    Also, where are the updated maps of Mercury? You know, ones that would cover more than the 45% of the surface covered by Mariner 10? God I just wish they would release all their raw images just like they did with Cassini-Huygens so that we could do all the cool stuff they can't be bothered to do. And I feel entitled to this as it's all financed with tax payer money, right? (Well, let's ignore the fact that I'm not even American)

    --
    You just got troll'd!