April 30, 2009

New Mysteries Unveiled on Mercury

Written by Nancy Atkinson

Even though Mercury looks like the Moon at first glance, scientists from the MESSENGER mission say it’s becoming apparent that Mercury is an amazingly dynamic planet, and is actually more like Mars.

For example, before this mission, scientists weren’t sure if volcanism even existed on Mercury, but from the spacecraft’s two flybys, they now know it is a very important part of the planet’s history.

Additional new findings from the second flyby of Mercury in October 2008 show that the planet’s atmosphere, magnetosphere, and geological past are all characterized by much greater levels of activity than scientists first suspected.

And by the way, isn’t this a stunning picture of an impact basin? It’s one of the new discoveries from MESSENGER.

Full article here:

http://www.universetoday.com/2009/04/30/new-mysteries-unveiled-on-mercury/