MESSENGER at Mercury
At first glance, this picture seems to be of our moon, but it is actually a photograph of Mercury, our innermost planet. This image was taken by the MESSENGER spacecraft on March 17th, which was the first spacecraft to orbit Mercury. This was its first color processed image since entering the planet's orbit. After looking closely, it is easy to see the difference between Mercury and the Moon. There are light blue and brown areas near the craters, but perhaps the most noticable thing about this image are the long bright rays on the surface of the planet. This particular ray crater is Debussy. It is about 50 miles in diameter. With the MESSENGER spacecraft, we will be able to discover much more information on Mercury!
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