Robby
02-04-2008, 07:47 AM
http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/image/0802/craterspider_messenger.jpg (http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/image/0802/craterspider_messenger_big.jpg)
A Spider Shaped Crater on Mercury
Credit: MESSENGER (http://messenger.jhuapl.edu/who_we_are/ teams.html), NASA (http://www.nasa.gov/), JHU APL (http://www.jhuapl.edu/), CIW (http://www.ciw.edu/)
Explanation: Why does this crater on Mercury look like a spider? When the robotic MESSENGER spacecraft (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MESSENGER) glided by the planet Mercury (http://www.nineplanets.org/mercury.html) last month, it was able to image portions of the Sun's closest planet that had never been seen before. When imaging the center of Mercury's extremely large Caloris Basin (http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap960120.html), MESSENGER found a crater, pictured above, with a set of unusual rays (http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap050305.html) emanating out from its center. A crater with such troughs has never been seen before anywhere in our Solar System (http://solarsystem.nasa.gov/planets/index.cfm). What isn't clear is the relation of the crater to the radial troughs. Perhaps the crater created the radial rays (http://www.badastronomy.com/bablog/2008/01/30/spiders-on-mercury/), or perhaps the two features appear only by a chance superposition -- the topic is sure to be one of future research. MESSENGER is scheduled (http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/messenger/timeline/index.html) to fly past Mercury twice more before firing its thrusters (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hKoB0MHVBvM) to enter orbit in 2011.
(Via NASA) (http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap080204.html)
A Spider Shaped Crater on Mercury
Credit: MESSENGER (http://messenger.jhuapl.edu/who_we_are/ teams.html), NASA (http://www.nasa.gov/), JHU APL (http://www.jhuapl.edu/), CIW (http://www.ciw.edu/)
Explanation: Why does this crater on Mercury look like a spider? When the robotic MESSENGER spacecraft (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MESSENGER) glided by the planet Mercury (http://www.nineplanets.org/mercury.html) last month, it was able to image portions of the Sun's closest planet that had never been seen before. When imaging the center of Mercury's extremely large Caloris Basin (http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap960120.html), MESSENGER found a crater, pictured above, with a set of unusual rays (http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap050305.html) emanating out from its center. A crater with such troughs has never been seen before anywhere in our Solar System (http://solarsystem.nasa.gov/planets/index.cfm). What isn't clear is the relation of the crater to the radial troughs. Perhaps the crater created the radial rays (http://www.badastronomy.com/bablog/2008/01/30/spiders-on-mercury/), or perhaps the two features appear only by a chance superposition -- the topic is sure to be one of future research. MESSENGER is scheduled (http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/messenger/timeline/index.html) to fly past Mercury twice more before firing its thrusters (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hKoB0MHVBvM) to enter orbit in 2011.
(Via NASA) (http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap080204.html)