MESSENGER Flies by Mercury

Isn't it amazingly like our own Moon, the craters, the rays, even the colours.... (although it may be that the image above is just black and white, all the mariner images were yellow tinted) :

Mariner was waaay back in the old days when NASA were still using the wet-plate collodion process to produce sepia tints!

The fact that photos taken in sunlight show white rather than yellow proves tha the sun is not a yellow star.
The fact that it is bigger than the average star proves that it is not a "Yellow Dwarf" either.
Yet it is officially designated a "Yellow Dwarf".

Mariner was waaay back in the old days when NASA were still using the wet-plate collodion process to produce sepia tints! Very Happy

:lol: :lol: :lol:

Probably had the black hood over the head too and the magnesium powder flash....

Seriously though, any idea if the pictures released today are colour images, (mind you NASA's take on true colour were often "coloured" by their own preconceptions)

Would it be a silly question to ask but does mercury have its own astmosphere because its so close to the sun?

Mariner 10 discovered that it does have an extremely thin layer of helium. But the density was so thin, that the amount collect from 4 square miles would fill a childs novelty balloon.

Seanie.

Thanks seanie

Feast over these shots also, just released from the oficial website...

messenger.jhuapl.edu/gallery/sciencePhotos/

Keith..