Mercury in Accentuated Color
Explanation:
The colors of Mercury are subtle but beautiful.
At first glance, our
Solar System's
innermost planet appears simply
black and white,
but images that include
infrared
colors normally beyond human vision accentuate a world of detail.
One such image,
shown
above, was acquired by the robotic
MESSENGER spacecraft
that
swung by Mercury in mid-January.
Here, most generally, the hot world itself acquires a slightly more brown hue.
Many
craters that appear
on top of other craters -- and so surely have formed more recently -- appear here
as bright with bright rays that include a slightly blue tint, indicating that soil
upended during the impact was light in color.
A few craters, such as some in the huge
Caloris Basin impact feature visible on the upper right,
appear unexpectedly to be
ringed
with a dark material, the nature of which is being researched.
MESSENGER continues to glide
through the inner Solar System and will pass
Mercury
again this October and next September, before entering orbit around the desolate
world in 2011.
Arthur C. Clarke 1917-2008
Authors & editors:
Robert Nemiroff
(MTU) &
Jerry Bonnell
(USRA)
NASA Web Site Statements, Warnings,
and Disclaimers
NASA Official: Jay Norris.
Specific
rights apply.
A service of:
LHEA at
NASA /
GSFC
& Michigan Tech. U.
