El projecte MESSENGER (MErcury Surface, Space ENvironment, GEochemistry ang Ranging) acaba de fer públiques unes imatges fins al moment inèdites: la “cara oculta” del planeta Mercuri. Les imatges mostren una gran activitat volcànica a la superfície del planeta, cràters d’impacte parcialment plens de lava. Aquesta teoria ja l’apuntava la missió del Mariner 10, ara fa 33 anys. Les imatges capturades pel satèl·lit ara fa quinze dies aclareixen totes les teories fetes a partir de la darrera missió, del 1975.

After a journey of more than 2.2 billion miles and three and a half years, NASA’s MESSENGER spacecraft made its first flyby of Mercury just after 2 PM Eastern Standard Time on January 14, 2008. All seven scientific instruments worked flawlessly, producing a stream of surprises that is amazing and delighting the science team. The 1,213 images conclusively show that the planet is a lot less like the Moon than many previously thought, with features unique to this innermost world. The puzzling magnetosphere appears to be very different from what Mariner 10 discovered and first sampled almost 34 years ago.

Enllaç al comunicat de premsa complet: Surprises Stream back from Mercury’s MESSENGER