MESSENGER Mercury Updates.

[3488]

Thank you very much Wayne,

I'll be listening in for sure. This mission is becoming larger all the while as the First Rock from the Sun continues to reveal it's secrets. Yet the Primary Misssion has yet to commence & look at what already has been achieved.

This week's update.

66 KM wide Navoi Crater, another Hermean volcano?????

Countdown to 3rd closest approach: Tuesday 29th September 2009.

154 Days.
0 Hour.
8 Minutes.
00 Seconds.

Andrew Brown.

 

[3488]

A couple of enlargements from this weeks' update.

Crop & enlargement of the 66 KM wide Navoi Crater. Does look a little like a collapsed nested caldera, though difficult to tell from such a foreshortened angle.

Another similar sized & form of crater to the N E of Navoi Crater. Another possible caldera???

Large approx 300 KM wide lava filled Ghost Crater well Ghost Basin almost, in the far north. Also look at the crater on the left in the ghost crater, looks a lot like Navoi, potentially yet another Hermean volcano? But the angle is difficult being so foreshortened. Could just be a post impact terrace or volcanic??

We'll know for sure during the Primary Orbital Mission when MESSENGER will be passing directly overhead of these three.

BTW Mercury is putting on quite a good show now after sunset, got a good view yesterday from home despite the bright twilight. From here the twilights are now long lasting not really getting dark now till gone 10:00 PM & getting later daily.

Countdown to 3rd closest approach: Tuesday 29th September 2009.

153 Days.
11 Hours.
49 Minutes.
30 Seconds.

Andrew Brown.

 

[MeteorWayne]

The audio teleconference is about to start. Supporting images are located here:

http://messenger.jhuapl.edu/news_room/m ... 43009.html

Too hook up to the audio, see here:

http://www.nasa.gov/news/media/newsaudio/index.html

 

[3488]

Thank you very much Wayne.

I have been very unwell again & spent a short time in hospital yesterday & been sleeping most of today, but am much better again now, though not 100% well.

The MESSENGER mission os growing daily, two preliminary encounters (main aim to slow MESSENGER's heliocentric velocity), has already changed many preconceived ideas.

The fact that lavas similar to andesite have been detected (high in silica, low in metals, etc), suggests that these areas were molten for quite some time (to allow for the settling of the heavier elements).

The fact that these in places are layered between regular basalt lavers is very interesting. They could be exposed dykes & sills, but the fact MESSENGER appears to have found these in many different locations on Mercury, seems to make this explanation less likely.

What will be great to see, will be the compostional data about the Rembrandt Basin, apparently the ypungest of the large hermean basins, as the relatively low cratering density of the floor suggests.

The updates about that feature are interesting & actually confrm what I had suggested on here the first day or so after the encounter, that the floor appeared to be covered in episodic lava flows rather than flooded with lava in one massive event.

715 KM wide Rembrandt Basin. Schematic showing fractures,

Rembrandt Basin reprojected. The small section on the right (eastern rim) was seen during MESSNGER's January 2008 pass. The rest seen during the October 2008 pass.

Rembrandt Basin as seen by MESSENGER in October 2008.

Andrew Brown.

 

[3488]

This week's update.

First near global surface composition maps of Mercury.

Will be interesting to see an explantion as to the differing colours in these mutlispectral global views.

The dark band is terrain not seen by MESSENGER, but the top one to the east of Caloris & Tolstoj was seen in detail by Mariner 10 in 1974, though not multispectrally.

Countdown to 3rd closest approach: Tuesday 29th September 2009.

136 Days.
7 Hours.
54 Minutes.
45 Seconds.

Andrew Brown.

 

[3488]

This week's update.

182 KM wide Praxiteles Crater in false colour.

To the bottom right / S E within the crater, the irregular depression is likely a volcanic caldera.

Countdown to 3rd closest approach: Tuesday 29th September 2009.

131Days.
5 Hours.
30 Minutes.
15 Seconds.

Andrew Brown.

 

[3488]

Fascinating update this week.

Look into the interior of Rembrandt Basin.

Countdown to encounter #3: Tuesday 29th September 2009.

125 Days.
23 Hours.
58 Minutes.
15 Seconds.

Andrew Brown.

 

[3488]

Just perusing MESSENGER Earth encounter images taken during the Earth encounter way back on: Tuesday 2nd August 2005.

Found these two amazing images, thought I would put them here.

Earth from MESSENGER showing the Americas. The USA & Latin America are well seen. The Amazon is striking.

Earth from MESSENGER showing the South Atlantic. Here it is Winter, being south of the equator.

Countdown to encounter #3: Tuesday 29th September 2009.

123 Days.
0 Hour.
9 Minutes.
00 Seconds.

Andrew Brown.

 

[3488]

This week's update.

Reprojected images are showing the true nature of many Hermean features.
250 KM wide lava flooded ghost crater with 1,000 metre tall scarp.

Countdown to encounter #3: Tuesday 29th September 2009.

119 Days.
1 Hour.
3 Minutes.
00 Seconds.

Andrew Brown.

 

[jlaw6402]

very nice pictures, thank you for everyone's contributions. truly mesmerizing.

 

[3488]

very nice pictures, thank you for everyone's contributions. truly mesmerizing.

A very big welcome to SDC jlaw6402.

Thank you for your appreciative post.

IMO (In My Opinion) Mercury has been a dark horse in the Solar System, neglected for for too long post Mariner 10, when only 45% of the planet had been imaged.

I have been the chief MESSENGER for MESSENGER (crap pun I know), updating the weekly updates on here, but I'm not the only one mind you & I have been sharing ideas with the MESSENGER team at an interested outsider for some time now.

The notion of Mercury being a boring cratered ball of rock has gone forever now.

Mercury is turning out to be far more evolved then first thought, the 45% Mariner 10 imaged appears to be the side of Mercury that is more primitive, raising speculation that Mercury at one time was Sun synchronous (kept the same side turned towards the Sun), but giant impacts, particularly the ones that formed Caloris, Tolstoj & Rembrandt spun Mercury up to the current 3:2 resonance (Mercury rotates three times for every two 88 day orbits around the Sun) with the Sun.

MESSENGER has since found that 30% of Mercury is less heavily cratered, but was on the night side when Mariner 10 carried out it's mission. This has lead to the speculation that Mercury was Sun synchronous, as the former leading hemisphere (the side Mariner 10 imaged) would have been hit more than the trailing side (the side MESSENGER has at last revealed). This is not proven fact, but with the new evidence to hand is becoming increasingly plausible.

Also gravity & magnetic field data from MESSENGER suggests that Mercury has a dual layered core, like the Earth & is only the third object thought of having one (Earth & the Jupiter moon Ganymede being the other two). This is something that even Venus & Mars lack.

MESSENGER has since found that about 30% of Mercury is less heavily cratered, but was on the night side when Mariner 10 carried out it's mission. At least one shield volcano has been found with other potential volcanoes being found. Whilst much of Mercury appears to look a lot like the Moon, a few places look more like Mars.

Also the confirmation of a giant iron core has been made from gravity data & MESSENGER may already have found at least one Mass Concetration within Mercury & the floor of the newly found Rembrandt Basin appears to be very rich in Iron, more so than Caloris & Tolstoj, very strange.

I will keep updating this thread with new information & sometimes I post my own musings (inane ramblings really) as well as enlargements, crops etc.

I think Mercury is a fascinating world, MESSENGER is a fantastic spacecraft, that so far has not had any problems & the highly science focussed September pass as well as the polar'ish' orbital mission commencing in March 2011 will really bring Mercury into the fold of highly explored worlds.

Hopefully, someone, either NASA, ESA or JAXA will eventually send a lander or rover or both to Mercury, equipped with multispectral PanCams, microscopic imagers, seismometers, field & particle detectors, etc. That will be the next step IMHO.

AFAIK, the ESA / JAXA BepiColombo will be next mission, two orbiters, (ESA's very low orbit with high resolution camera, multispectral imagers, magnetometer & gas chromatographs, JAXA's will concentrate on fields & particles in a much higher orbit, I think that is correct, as this is off the top of my head) though IMO, perhaps JAXA could have sent a lander, equipped as in the previous paragraph instead, but that's my opinion.

Andrew Brown.

 

[3488]

This week's update.

Hermean Ray Craters darken with age.

Countdown to encounter #3: Tuesday 29th September 2009.

110 Days.
9 Hours.
26 Minutes.
15 Seconds.

Andrew Brown.

 

[3488]

The MESSENGER site is back up after being down for a little while.

This week's update.

Colours reveal what lies beneath.

121 KM wide Titian Crater in false colour.

Countdown to encounter #3: Tuesday 29th September 2009.

95 Days.
23 Hours.
23 Minutes.
15 Seconds.

Andrew Brown.

 

[3488]

This weeks update.

An interesting one as it shows that the data from both MESSENGER passes to date are being compiled.

Mercury surface Compositional & Roughness Data.

Countdown to encounter #3: Tuesday 29th September 2009.

90 Days.
2 Hours.
14 Minutes.
15 Seconds.

Andrew Brown.

 

[bntommy]

very cool pics, thank you for the updates.

 

[3488]

very cool pics, thank you for the updates.

You are very welcome & welcome to SDC bntommy.

Interesting update this week.

More volcanic calderae this time in 152 KM Wide Lermontov Crater??

Countdown to encounter #3: Tuesday 29th September 2009.

83 Days.
22 Hours.
4 Minutes.
15 Seconds.

Andrew Brown.

 

[3488]

A crop & enlargement covering approx 50 KM across within the Lermontov Crater on Mercury, showing what appears to be volcanic depressions & a conical hill to the upper right of them.

Countdown to encounter #3: Tuesday 29th September 2009.

81 Days.
1 Hour.
29 Minutes.
30 Seconds.

Andrew Brown.

 

[3488]

This week's update.

Farewell Mercury, see you again in September.

Montage looking back at the First Rock from the Sun post Periherm, encounter # 2 in October 2008.

Countdown to encounter #3: Tuesday 29th September 2009.

75 Days.
0 Hours.
41 Minutes.
15 Seconds.

Andrew Brown.

 

[3488]

This week's update.

Pit floored crater. More evidence of volcanism on Mercury.

102 KM wide crater with a rimless pit (arrowed) on the floor.

Countdown to encounter #3: Tuesday 29th September 2009.

65 Days.
9 Hours.
36 Minutes.
00 Seconds.

Andrew Brown.

 

[3488]

Sixteen previously unknown craters have been named by the IAU from the January 2008 & October 2009 encounters.

A large map is shown & is one of the best to date of the First Rock from the Sun.

Countdown to encounter #3: Tuesday 29th September 2009.

62 Days.
1 Hour.
37 Minutes.
30 Seconds.

Andrew Brown.

 

[3488]

This week's update.

Craters, some overlapping, some flooded by volcanic lava

It shows a 285 KM wide region that sees craters both overlapping & some neighbouring ones almost obliterated (Ghost craters) by lava. This shows how complicated the Hermean surface is & how volcanic activity was a much greater driving force than first thought on Mercury.

Bottom image. Blue arrows show overlapping craters, white arrows show lava flooded craters. Yellow arrow shows a crater that has kept its central peaks.

Countdown to encounter #3: Tuesday 29th September 2009.

55 Days.
0 Hour.
00 Minutes.
00 Seconds.

Andrew Brown.

 

[3488]

This week's update.

110 KM wide Abedin Crater in the far north of Mercury.

Rays from another crater (which also extend over much of this side of Mercury) can bee seen coming from the S E.

Abedin Crater, just found last October & newly named lies in the far north of Mercury, on what appears to be fairly smooth lava plains. Quite a nice set of craterlet arrays like spider legs radiate from Abedin.

Countdown to encounter #3: Tuesday 29th September 2009.

47 Days.
0 Hour.
11 Minutes.
00 Seconds.

Andrew Brown.

 

[3488]

My crop & enlargement of the 110 KM wide Abedin Crater with the radial secondary craters.

Countdown to encounter #3: Tuesday 29th September 2009.

46 Days.
23 Hours.
54 Minutes.
45 Seconds.

Andrew Brown.

 

[3488]

This week's update.

21 Km wide Dark Halo Crater Berkel.

My educated guess, that is all it is below.

This may be further evidence of the localised differentiation of Mercury's outer crust (perhaps due to ancient magmatic hot spots). In places the crustal basalts have separated, into 'normal' basalts & Andesite types (where the impurities / metals have separated out leaving a silicate rich lava) layers. Then this cools & solidifies & then an impact throws out differentiated material from slightly deeper down, creating a dark halo.

Other craters nearby, maybe the impact events either did not penetrate deep enough or the differentiated crust is thicker or the crust is undifferentiated. Perhaps I'm just talking nonsense!!!!!!!

Countdown to encounter #3: Tuesday 29th September 2009.

41 Days.
23 Hours.
23 Minutes.
30 Seconds.

Andrew Brown.

 

[3488]

This week's update.

Lava flooded 180 KM wide Munkácsy Crater.

Countdown to encounter #3: Tuesday 29th September 2009.

33 Days.
23 Hours.
56 Minutes.
30 Seconds.

Andrew Brown.