Starship Asterisk*

http://messenger.jhuapl.edu/gallery/sciencePhotos/index.php wrote:

---

---

[img3="The crater with the "smile" (the large crater toward the top of the image) is Al-Hamadhani, named in 1979 for the tenth century Iranian author Badi' al-Zaman al-Hamadhani. This crater was first imaged by Mariner 10, but MESSENGER's Wide Angle Camera (WAC) now offers us another view."]http://messenger.jhuapl.edu/gallery/sci ... 1303829789[/img3]

The crater on the left of the image is Spitteler, while the neighboring crater to the right extending out the top of the image is Holberg. Both craters were viewed by Mariner 10, but MESSENGER's polar orbit offers a new view of these craters and the surrounding terrain.

---

http://messenger.jhuapl.edu/gallery/sciencePhotos/image.php?gallery_id=2&image_id=483 wrote:

This high-resolution image of Mickiewicz crater was taken with MESSENGER's NAC. The brightness of the peaks at the crater's center results from the illumination conditions (sunlight on the steep slopes), from down-slope movement of eroded material that continually exposes fresh rock, and likely from the composition of the peaks as well.

---

http://messenger.jhuapl.edu/ wrote:
100 Orbits and Counting
MESSENGER Mission News May 6, 2011

<<Later today, MESSENGER will begin its 100th orbit around Mercury. Since its insertion into orbit about the innermost planet on March 17, the spacecraft has executed nearly 2 million commands.

The data gathered so far include more than 70 million magnetic field measurements, 300,000 visible and infrared spectra of the surface, 16,000 images, and 12,000 X-ray and 9,000 gamma-ray spectra probing the elemental composition of Mercury’s uppermost crust.

“As the primary orbital phase of the MESSENGER mission unfolds, we are building up the first comprehensive view of the innermost planet,” states MESSENGER Principal Investigator Sean Solomon, of the Carnegie Institution of Washington. “The surface is unraveling before our eyes in great detail, and the planet’s topography and gravity and magnetic fields are being steadily filled in. As the Sun becomes increasingly active, Mercury’s extraordinarily dynamic exosphere and magnetosphere continue to display novel phenomena.”

MESSENGER continues its science-mapping phase in orbit around Mercury. All spacecraft systems remain safe and healthy, and all science instruments are on and continue to collect data according to the baseline observation plan.

“Over the next several weeks, MESSENGER’s subsystems and instruments will experience their hottest temperatures yet as the spacecraft crosses between the planet’s surface and our Sun at high noon close to the planet, preceded by hour-long eclipses near local midnight with only the spacecraft battery to keep the spacecraft alive in the dark of Mercury’s night,” notes MESSENGER Project Scientist Ralph McNutt.

“All of this was planned in great detail more than seven years ago, as was the orbit insertion burn that went so flawlessly,” he adds. “Theory is one thing and reality another, and the sense of thrill leading to ‘firsts’ is always followed by a sense of relief, especially in the challenging environment of interplanetary space, far from home.”>>