Latest Images from Mercury: Bright Peaks, Swirling Craters and Weird Terrain
Credit: NASA/Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory/Carnegie Institution of Washington
The MESSENGER spacecraft is still happily orbiting Mercury since its orbit insertion in mid-March, and here are some of the latest images sent back from the first rock from the Sun. In this image, the central peaks inside a large crater named Asvaghosa show up as exceptionally bright. The MESSENGER team believes that their high reflectance appears to have been enhanced by the crater rays that cross the area, which originates from another crater. Asvaghosa is 90 km (56 mi.) in diameter, and was targeted for special, high-resolution observations, where MESSENGER’s cameras zero-in for the closest looks possible. While it is not possible to cover all of Mercury’s surface at this high of a resolution during the spacecraft’s one-year mission, several areas of high scientific interest are generally imaged in this mode each week.
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