New Close Up Image of Planet Mercury

[rodsky]

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Snapped this off a video I download off NASA today...


The Messenger Spacecraft made its first of 3 flybys of the Planet Mercury a few hours ago, and now is going away from Mercury. It will swing by Mercury again and again in a few years, before finally settling in orbit around it in 2011.

That image nga gipost nako above, is the first image we have of Mercury since 1975, when Mariner 10 was the last spacecraft to have flown by it. Hopefully, once it orbits in 2011, its complex sensors can tell us if there is really water ice on the dark poles of the planet closest to the sun.

You might be asking why ngano sa 2011 pa man makarorbit when naka pass by na gani karon? Well, the science of orbital mechanics isn't exactly like playing billiards. The tug of Venus and the Earth itself, as well as Mercury ug ang Sun, contributes to the complex and indirect orbital path to allow insertion of the spacecraft into Mercurian orbit...

Here's a YouTube video explaining the complex orbit insertion.
http://youtube.com/watch?v=Ownzbb1mKxs

That video explains why lisod magpa-orbit ug spacecraft around Mercury.

BTW Messenger was launched diay back in 2004. Most people didn't even know about it.

-RODION

[rodsky]

The hidden side...
[img width=500 height=500]http://www.nasa.gov/images/content/208455main_messenger_mercury_lg.jpg[/img]

This side of Mercury has NEVER been photographed before (til now, of course). Looks a lot like the moon hehe, in fact if you posted this on some other site without a label, chances are people will say "Oh, the moon." Nyahahaha

Full-sized image here...

http://www.nasa.gov/images/content/2...mercury_lg.jpg

-RODION

[zionchild]

It's really beautiful to see a rare image.

[bluefairy]

Amazing!

[SamuraiArcher]

nice

[Tin_Tin]

amazing.....

[alviperz]

nice!

[MisterSuave]

mura cyag plexi glass nga gi tuloan ug welding..

[rodsky]

mura cyag plexi glass nga gi tuloan ug welding..

Clapclapclap! One of the best ever vernacular descriptions sa usa ka planetary surface nga akong nadungan! Ayos sir, karma points for you!

-RODION

[Labrador2]

nice pic karon ra ko naka kita ug good pic sa mercury