Author Topic: NASA- MESSENGER updates  (Read 149379 times)

Offline wannamoonbase

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Re: NASA- MESSENGER updates
« Reply #40 on: 01/16/2008 02:42 pm »
Great stuff.  Love it.  So much better than the mosaic images from Mariner.  Really excited about getting the rest of the data in the coming days as well as the next two fly bys.

Great work Messenger team.
Wildly optimistic prediction, Superheavy recovery on IFT-4 or IFT-5

Offline Lawntonlookirs

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Re: NASA- MESSENGER updates
« Reply #41 on: 01/16/2008 03:12 pm »
Very interesting information.  I also am awaiting to see some more pictures.
Everyman is my superior in that I may learn from him.  Albert Einstein

Offline eeergo

RE: NASA- MESSENGER updates
« Reply #42 on: 01/16/2008 08:23 pm »

Now a close-up image: the Vivaldi crater, near the terminator. I suppose they're analyzing tons of data and don't have much spare time, but they're releasing the images too little by little...

EDIT: Oh, ok, now I read the Planetary Society blog you linked above and it seems they don't have much antenna time to download their data, because of a slight problem Ulysses had yesterday and required the 70m antennas to be directed to it...

-DaviD-

Offline Lampyridae

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Re: NASA- MESSENGER updates
« Reply #43 on: 01/17/2008 01:21 am »
Reminds me of Ganymede and Callisto, with those white rays from the impact craters. Of course, there must be a totally different geology at work here. I've never studied Mercury in much detail, but I don't recall seeing many of these kind of craters in the explored regions. Perhaps they are relatively fresh impacts? But some darker craters sit on the rays. Maybe those impacts spewed a pocket of different material. No evidence of marae regions on this side at all.

Offline eeergo

Re: NASA- MESSENGER updates
« Reply #44 on: 01/17/2008 08:43 pm »

Six new images have been released (they're picking up the pace :) ) and all of them are hugely interesting, with some close-ups of previously unseen areas. The geology is very varied, with lots of cliffs, new and old craters, filled and empty, partially destroyed or intact. And there's an oblique horizon view which is totally breathtaking! I'll attach that one for today.

http://messenger.jhuapl.edu/gallery/sciencePhotos/pics/EN0108821596M.png" width="1016" border="0" />

-DaviD-

Offline stockman

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Re: NASA- MESSENGER updates
« Reply #45 on: 01/17/2008 08:53 pm »
Wow... almost looks like two river channels inside the big crater in the lower right corner! I assume they are stress cracks but they certainly have a liquid flow look to them. Beautiful view! :)
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Offline Lawntonlookirs

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Re: NASA- MESSENGER updates
« Reply #46 on: 01/18/2008 02:53 pm »
I don't have to check all of the links so really appreciate all of the date.  Keep posting them.  Great pictures.  Can't wait until additional pictures are shown.
Everyman is my superior in that I may learn from him.  Albert Einstein

Offline ApolloLee

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Re: NASA- MESSENGER updates
« Reply #47 on: 01/18/2008 03:49 pm »
Isn't it something that we're still seeing things no human eye has seen before?

Offline eeergo

RE: NASA- MESSENGER updates
« Reply #48 on: 01/18/2008 04:44 pm »

Another two images have been released today and the team informs all the flyby data has successfully been returned to Earth. Apparantly, "there are already indications that new discoveries are at hand".

For today, this approach image which shows a shadowed Mercury, and the one below the still-iluminated crater and mountain summits in Vivaldi (the last one is from the 16th, but I decided today it was too nice to leave it unposted :) ). However, I strongly recommend you to check them all in the site, because every single one of them is worth a good look, even though some are less spectacular.

-DaviD-

Offline braddock

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Re: NASA- MESSENGER updates
« Reply #49 on: 01/18/2008 06:04 pm »
Are these images natural color, or grayscale?
What color is Mercury?

Offline eeergo

Re: NASA- MESSENGER updates
« Reply #50 on: 01/18/2008 06:43 pm »
Most of the images available are from the NAC, which only does grayscale. However, the two most recent approach images are from the WAC, which does color, although the ones released were taken through only a filter (filter 10, 750 nm (far red-near infrared)), which makes them equally grayscale. What I don't know is if this flyby was supposed to use all WAC's filters or just one, but I'm pretty certain some color images will appear when they analyze all the data and have time to merge different filters. I base my suspicions on the timeline I was looking at during closest approach: they talk about color imaging and photometry.

I'm not really sure what color Mercury is... we usually see it looking pretty much the same color as the Moon, but going through some images I found some showing a reddish-brown tone from Mariner 10, the best of which is in Wikipedia: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/e1/Mercury_Mariner10.jpg I hope we get much better views from MESSENGER soon though :)
-DaviD-

Offline eeergo

RE: NASA- MESSENGER updates
« Reply #51 on: 01/20/2008 03:02 pm »
-DaviD-

Offline eeergo

RE: NASA- MESSENGER updates
« Reply #52 on: 01/22/2008 08:47 pm »

Mercury's first color image has been released!! And along with it a cute spectroscopy analysis, that while being very preliminary, shows what could already be seen in the other image and in Mariner's: Mercury is predominantly red (those areas which have been exposed to space weather longer) with blue patches (recently cratered places)

Previously, they have also posted some B&W images, one of them from the South Pole! Below is the star of the party: Mercury in color.

-DaviD-

Offline edkyle99

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RE: NASA- MESSENGER updates
« Reply #53 on: 01/23/2008 08:49 pm »
Keep in mind that "MESSENGER’s eyes can see far beyond the color range of the human eye, and the colors seen in the accompanying image are somewhat different from what a human would see."

http://messenger.jhuapl.edu/gallery/sciencePhotos/image.php?gallery_id=2&image_id=132

I'm pretty sure that the color Mariner 10 images most commonly seen are in false-color also.  I don't know if I've ever seen a "true color" image.

 - Ed Kyle

Offline jacqmans

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RE: NASA- MESSENGER updates
« Reply #54 on: 01/28/2008 07:05 pm »
MEDIA ADVISORY: M08-019

NASA TO RELEASE SCIENCE RESULTS AND NEW IMAGES FROM MERCURY FLYBY

WASHINGTON - NASA will hold a press conference at 1 p.m. EST on
Wednesday, Jan. 30, to announce scientific findings and release
never-before-seen images of Mercury. The images were taken during a
NASA spacecraft's January flyby of the planet. The briefing will take
place in the NASA Headquarters' James E. Webb Auditorium, 300 E
Street, S.W., Washington, and will be carried live on NASA
Television.

NASA's MErcury Surface, Space ENvironment, GEochemistry, and Ranging
(Messenger) spacecraft is the first mission sent to orbit the planet
closest to our sun. After a journey of more than 2 billion miles, the
spacecraft made its first flyby of Mercury on Jan. 14. The
spacecraft's cameras and other sophisticated, high-technology
instruments collected more than 1,200 images and made other
observations. Data included the first up-close measurements of
Mercury since the Mariner 10 spacecraft's third and final flyby on
March 16, 1975.

Participants in the press conference will be:
- James Green, director, Planetary Science Division, NASA
Headquarters, Washington
- Sean Solomon, Mesenger principal investigator; director, Department
of Terrestrial Magnetism, Carnegie Institution of Washington
- Maria Zuber, Messenger science team member; head, Department of
Earth, Atmospheric and Planetary Sciences, Massachusetts Institute of
Technology, Cambridge
- Robert Strom, Messenger science team member; professor emeritus,
Lunar and Planetary Laboratory, University of Arizona, Tucson
- Louise Prockter, instrument scientist for the Mercury Dual Imaging
System, Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory, Laurel,
Md.

Reporters may ask questions from participating NASA locations. The
briefing also will be streamed live on NASA's Web site at:

http://www.nasa.gov
Jacques :-)

Offline simonbp

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RE: NASA- MESSENGER updates
« Reply #55 on: 01/28/2008 11:45 pm »
Quote
edkyle99 - 23/1/2008  2:49 PM

I'm pretty sure that the color Mariner 10 images most commonly seen are in false-color also.  I don't know if I've ever seen a "true color" image.

This one's pretty close:

http://i108.photobucket.com/albums/n15/ugordan/approx_rgb_gamma.jpg

From:

http://www.unmannedspaceflight.com/index.php?s=&showtopic=4812&view=findpost&p=108218

I know for a fact that they've seen some pretty interesting results; I wonder how much they will say at the Press Conference...

Simon ;)

Offline John44

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Offline jacqmans

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RE: NASA- MESSENGER updates
« Reply #57 on: 01/31/2008 04:32 am »
RELEASE: 08-027

NASA SPACECRAFT STREAMS BACK SURPRISES FROM MERCURY

WASHINGTON - The recent flyby of Mercury by NASA's MESSENGER
spacecraft has given scientists an entirely new look at a planet once
thought to have characteristics similar to those of Earth's moon.
Researchers are amazed by the wealth of images and data that show a
unique world with a diversity of geological processes and a very
different magnetosphere from the one discovered and sampled more than
30 years ago.

After a journey of more than 2 billion miles and three and a half
years, NASA's MErcury Surface, Space ENvironment, GEochemistry and
Ranging spacecraft made its first flyby on Jan. 14. The mission is
the first sent to orbit the planet closest to our sun. The
spacecraft's cameras and other sophisticated, high-technology
instruments collected more than 1,200 images and made other science
observations. Data included the first up-close measurements of
Mercury since the Mariner 10 spacecraft's third and final flyby on
March 16, 1975.

"This flyby allowed us to see a part of the planet never before viewed
by spacecraft, and our little craft has returned a gold mine of
exciting data," said Sean Solomon, MESSENGER's principal
investigator, Carnegie Institution of Washington. "From the
perspectives of spacecraft performance and maneuver accuracy, this
encounter was near-perfect, and we are delighted that all of the
science data are now on the ground."

Unlike the moon, the spacecraft showed that Mercury has huge cliffs
with structures snaking up hundreds of miles across the planet's
face. These cliffs preserve a record of patterns of fault activity
from early in the planet's history. The spacecraft also revealed
impact craters that appear very different from lunar craters.

Instruments provided a topographic profile of craters and other
geological features on the night side of Mercury. The spacecraft also
discovered a unique feature that scientists dubbed "The Spider." This
formation never has been seen on Mercury before and nothing like it
has been observed on the moon. It lies in the middle of a large
impact crater called the Caloris basin and consists of more than 100
narrow, flat-floored troughs radiating from a complex central region.


"The Spider has a crater near its center, but whether that crater is
related to the original formation or came later is not clear at this
time," said James Head, science team co-investigator at Brown
University, Providence, R.I.

Now that the spacecraft has shown scientists the full extent of the
Caloris basin, its diameter has been revised upward from the Mariner
10 estimate of 800 miles to perhaps as large as 960 miles from rim to
rim. The plains inside the Caloris basin are distinctive and more
reflective than the exterior plains. Impact basins on the moon have
opposite characteristics.

The magnetosphere and magnetic field of Mercury during the flyby
appeared to be different from the Mariner 10 observations. The
spacecraft found the planet's magnetic field was generally quiet but
showed several signatures indicating significant pressure within the
magnetosphere.

Magnetic fields like Earth's and their resulting magnetospheres are
generated by electrical dynamos in the form of a liquid metallic
outer core deep in the planet's center. Of the four terrestrial
planets, only Mercury and Earth exhibit such a phenomenon. The
magnetic field deflects the solar wind from the sun, producing a
protective bubble around Earth that shields the surface of our planet
from those energetic particles and other sources farther out in the
galaxy. Similar variations are expected for Mercury's magnetic field,
but the precise nature of its field and the time scales for internal
changes are unknown. The next two flybys and the yearlong orbital
phase will shed more light on these processes.

The spacecraft's suite of instruments has provided insight into the
mineral makeup of the surface terrain and detected ultraviolet
emissions from sodium, calcium and hydrogen in Mercury's exosphere.
It also has explored the sodium-rich exospheric "tail," which extends
more than 25,000 miles from the planet.

"We should keep this treasure trove of data in perspective," said
project scientist Ralph McNutt of the Applied Physics Laboratory,
Laurel, Md. "With two flybys to come and an intensive orbital mission
to follow, we are just getting started to go where no one has been
before."

For more information on the flyby, visit:

www.nasa.gov/messenger
Jacques :-)

Offline jacqmans

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Re: NASA- MESSENGER updates
« Reply #58 on: 07/02/2008 03:17 am »
MEDIA ADVISORY: M08-128

NASA TO REVEAL NEW DISCOVERIES FROM MERCURY

WASHINGTON -- NASA will host a media teleconference Thursday, July 3,
at 2 p.m. EDT, to discuss analysis of data from the Mercury Surface,
Space Environment, Geochemistry and Ranging (MESSENGER) spacecraft's
flyby of Mercury earlier this year.

The spacecraft is the first designed to orbit the planet closest to
the sun. It flew past Mercury on Jan. 14, 2008, and made the first
up-close measurements since Mariner 10's final flyby in 1975.

Analyses of the data show volcanoes were involved in the formation of
plains. The data also suggest the planet's magnetic field is actively
produced in its core. In addition, the mission has provided the first
look at the chemical composition of Mercury's surface. The results
will be reported in a series of 11 papers published July 4 in a
special section of Science magazine.

The teleconference participants are:
- Marilyn Lindstrom, program scientist, NASA Headquarters
- Sean Solomon, principal investigator, Carnegie Institution of
Washington
- James W. Head III, professor of geological sciences, Brown
University, Providence, R.I.
- William McClintock, senior research associate, Laboratory for
Atmospheric and Space Physics, University of Colorado, Boulder
- Thomas H. Zurbuchen, associate professor, Department of Atmospheric,
Oceanic and Space Sciences, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor

Reporters may access the embargoed science press package materials by
registering with EurekAlert! at www.eurekalert.org and e-mailing
[email protected] to expedite their registration. Once registered, they
may log in directly at:

http://www.eurekalert.org/jrnls/sci/

To participate in the teleconference, reporters in the United States
should call 1-888-455-3616 and use the passcode "messenger."
International reporters should call 1-517-623-4705. Audio of the
teleconference will be streamed live at:

http://www.nasa.gov/newsaudio

When the briefing begins, related images will be available at:

http://messenger.jhuapl.edu/news_room/index.php

Jacques :-)

Offline jacqmans

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Re: NASA- MESSENGER updates
« Reply #59 on: 07/04/2008 02:51 pm »
RELEASE: 08-166

NASA REVEALS NEW DISCOVERIES FROM MERCURY

GREENBELT, Md. -- Scientists have argued about the origins of
Mercury's smooth plains and the source of its magnetic field for more
than 30 years. Now, analyses of data from the January 2008 flyby of
the planet by the Mercury Surface, Space Environment, Geochemistry
and Ranging (MESSENGER) spacecraft have shown that volcanoes were
involved in plains formation and suggest that its magnetic field is
actively produced in the planet's core.

Scientists additionally took their first look at the chemical
composition of the planet's surface. The tiny craft probed the
composition of Mercury's thin atmosphere, sampled charged particles
(ions) near the planet, and demonstrated new links between both sets
of observations and materials on Mercury's surface. The results are
reported in a series of 11 papers published in a special section of
Science magazine July 4.

The controversy over the origin of Mercury's smooth plains began with
the 1972 Apollo 16 moon mission, which suggested that some lunar
plains came from material that was ejected by large impacts and then
formed smooth "ponds." When Mariner 10 imaged similar formations on
Mercury in 1975, some scientists believed that the same processes
were at work. Others thought Mercury's plains material came from
erupted lavas, but the absence of volcanic vents or other volcanic
features in images from that mission prevented a consensus.

Six of the papers in Science report on analyses of the planet's
surface through its reflectance and color variation, surface
chemistry, high-resolution imaging at different wavelengths, and
altitude measurements. The researchers found evidence of volcanic
vents along the margins of the Caloris basin, one of the solar
system's youngest impact basins. They also found that Caloris has a
much more complicated geologic history than previously believed.

The first altitude measurements from any spacecraft at Mercury also
found that craters on the planet are about a factor of two shallower
than those on Earth's moon. The measurements also show a complex
geologic history for Mercury.

Mercury's core makes up at least 60 percent of its mass, a figure
twice as large as any other known terrestrial planet. The flyby
revealed that the magnetic field, originating in the outer core and
powered by core cooling, drives very dynamic and complex interactions
among the planet's interior, surface, exosphere and magnetosphere.

Remarking on the importance of the core to surface geological
structures, Principal Investigator Sean Solomon at the Carnegie
Institution of Washington said, "The dominant tectonic landforms on
Mercury, including areas imaged for the first time by MESSENGER, are
features called lobate scarps, huge cliffs that mark the tops of
crustal faults that formed during the contraction of the surrounding
area. They tell us how important the cooling core has been to the
evolution of the surface. After the end of the period of heavy
bombardment, cooling of the planet's core not only fueled the
magnetic dynamo, it also led to contraction of the entire planet. And
the data from the flyby indicate that the total contraction is a
least one-third greater than we previously thought."

The flyby also made the first-ever observations of the ionized
particles in Mercury's unique exosphere. The exosphere is an
ultrathin atmosphere in which the molecules are so far apart they are
more likely to collide with the surface than with each other. The
planet's highly elliptical orbit, its slow rotation and particle
interactions with the magnetosphere, interplanetary medium and solar
wind result in strong seasonal and day-night differences in the way
particles behave.

For more information, visit:

http://www.nasa.gov/messenger

or

http://messenger.jhuapl.edu/mer_flyby1.html
Jacques :-)

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