Long wait to other side of Mercury nearly over

thanks dave!

Hi,

There is a whole host of experiments apart from the imaging ones, even ones for the very thin atmosphere.

Read about it under the link I gave previously (under "The Mission"),

John

Hi,

NASA has released a fairly detailed image from MESSENGER of Mercury. See link on my post on the top of this thread.

Mercury has been compared to our moon, but can you see any differences?

(There are other non-imaging differences)

John

I have noticed that impact craters seem smaller on Mercury than on our moon. does this mean that larger impacts are more likely in the early solar system and smaller impacts more likely later as there is less free material? in short - is the surface of mercury younger than our moon?

Declan

"He who laughts last, is a half wit"

I have noticed that impact craters seem smaller on Mercury than on our moon. does this mean that larger impacts are more likely in the early solar system and smaller impacts more likely later as there is less free material? in short - is the surface of mercury younger than our moon?

Declan

"He who laughts last, is a half wit"

It may be just a matter of scale - Mercury being that much larger than the moon. What struck me was that some of the craters had a dark ring around them. Is that a result of metallicity?. Mercury being much more metallic than any other planet in the solar system. But why only some? Are these older craters formed when the metals were closer to the surface?
Anyway Messenger will give us some new data to refine our knowledge of all matters in our solar system.

you are probably right. i did notice that some of the ejecta around craters looks a little lighter...a trick of the light or my imagination?