* Astronomy

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RE: MESSENGER

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Credit: NASA/Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory/Carnegie Institution of Washington/Planetary Science Institute

This graphic shows a portion of the fault scarp Beagle Rupes cutting through the highly elliptical crater Sveinsdóttir in a three-dimensional (3D) representation.

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On September 4, the MESSENGER team announced that it would not need to implement a scheduled manoeuvre to adjust the probes trajectory. This is the fourth time this year that such a manoeuvre has been called off. The reason? A recently implemented navigational technique that makes use of solar-radiation pressure (SRP) to guide the probe has been extremely successful at maintaining MESSENGER on a trajectory that will carry it over the cratered surface of Mercury for a second time on October 6.

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Data from MESSENGERs first flyby of Mercury have been released to the public by the Planetary Data System (PDS), an organisation that archives and distributes all of NASAs planetary mission data.

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NASA will host a media teleconference Thursday, July 3, at 2 p.m. EDT, to discuss analysis of data from the Mercury Surface, Space Environment, Geochemistry and Ranging (MESSENGER) spacecraft's flyby of Mercury earlier this year.

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Young Cunningham Crater in Old Caloris Basin

Young Cunningham Crater in Old Caloris Basin
Mercury's giant Caloris basin is the best-preserved large impact basin known on Mercury, and the high density of craters on its floor indicates that the basin is fairly old and probably formed about 3.8 billion years ago. This NAC image shows an area on the plains that partially fill the Caloris basin floor.
Credit: NASA/Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory/Carnegie Institution of Washington

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Credit: NASA/Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory/Carnegie Institution of Washington

Voilà! Mercury's Atget
Recently named for the French photographer Eugène Atget, Atget crater, seen in the middle of the lower portion of this NAC image, is distinctive on Mercury's surface due to its dark colour. Atget crater is located within Caloris basin, near Apollodorus crater and Pantheon Fossae, which are also both visible in this image to the northwest of Atget.

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Credit: NASA/Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory/Carnegie Institution of Washington

MESSENGER Captures a Shot of Kertész
Located in the western edge of Mercury's giant Caloris basin, Kertész crater (recently named for André Kertész, a Hungarian-born American photographer) has some unusual, bright material located on its floor.

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Jim McAdams, the MESSENGER mission design lead engineer, was named the 2008 Engineer of the Year by the Baltimore Section, American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA). Each spring, this chapter of AIAA honours those in the aerospace community who have made significant contributions during the previous year.

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MESSENGERs Narrow Angle Camera (NAC) of the Mercury Dual Imaging System (MDIS) captured this image during the flyby one month ago. The Sun is illuminating this region at a low angle, accentuating the modest ridges and other low topography on these nearly flat plains. Low ridges trend from the top-centre of the image to the left edge (white arrows).

Credit: NASA/Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory/Carnegie Institution of Washington

The ghostly remains of craters are visible, filled to their rims by what may have been volcanic lavas (red arrows). The faint remnant of an inner ring within the large crater in the bottom half of this picture can be seen (blue arrow); the area interior to this ring was also flooded, possibly by lava, nearly to the point of disappearance. Clusters of secondary craters on the floor of the large crater and elsewhere (yellow arrows) formed when clumps of material were ejected from large impacts beyond the view of this image, which is about 350 kilometres across.