Mercury’s Ready For Its Close-Up, Mr. MESSENGER

(Before It's News)

One of the highest-resolution images of Mercury’s surface ever acquired.

Are you ready for a good close look at Mercury? At an incredible 5 meters per pixel, this is one of the highest-resolution images of Mercury’s surface ever captured. It was acquired on March 15 with the MESSENGER spacecraft’s MDIS (Mercury Dual Imaging System) instrument and shows an 8.3-km (5.2-mile) -wide section of Mercury’s north polar region, speckled with small craters and softly rolling hills.

Because MESSENGER was moving so quickly relative to the targeted area it was imaging, a short exposure time was necessary to avoid blurring. As a result the image appears a bit grainy. See the original map projection here.

Wondering what the next-best image was of Mercury? Find out below:

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Read the rest of Mercury’s Ready For Its Close-Up, Mr. MESSENGER (364 words)

© Jason Major for Universe Today, 2014. |
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Post tags: high resolution, JHUAPL, MDIS, Mercury, MESSENGER, NASA, orbit, planet, Solar System

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