The lower part of this image reveals a portion of Mercury near its south pole that has never before been witnessed by spacecraft, NASA have reported.
Credit: NASA/Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory/Carnegie Institution of Washington
WASHINGTON: NASA’s Messenger craft has captured an historic image of Mercury. This is the first image ever obtained from a spacecraft in orbit about the Solar System's innermost planet.
The spacecraft snapped 363 images over the next six hours before downlinking some of the data to Earth. The additional images expected to be released in conjunction with an expert press conference to discuss the findings.
“The bottom portion of this image is near Mercury's south pole and includes a region of Mercury's surface not previously seen by spacecraft. Compare this image to the planned image footprint to see the region of newly imaged terrain, south of Debussy,” said NASA.
Viewing Matabei and Debussy craters
The upper part of the image shows an unusual, dark-rayed crater called Debussy, and the smaller crater is Matabei with the unusual dark rays. Matabei is visible to the west of Debussy.
NASA's Messenger craft - which stands for MErcury Surface, Space ENvironment, GEochemistry, and Ranging - became the first vehicle to orbit Mercury on March 17.
Messenger was launched more than six years ago, travelling through the inner solar system and embarking on flybys of Earth, Venus and Mercury.
Unravelling the evolution of Mercury
The mission is currently in its commissioning phase, during which spacecraft and instrument performance are verified through a series of specially designed checkout activities
The first NASA craft to study Mercury since the Mariner mission more than three decades ago, Messenger has already been able to return a partial map of the planet's crater-filled surface after just a handful of flybys.
In the course of the one-year primary mission, the spacecraft's seven scientific instruments and radio science investigation will unravel the history and evolution of the Solar System's innermost planet.
