The MESSENGER mission has released the first global digital elevation model (DEM) of Mercury, revealing in stunning detail the topography across the entire innermost planet and paving the way for scientists to characterize fully the planet's geologic history.
The Mercury Atmosphere and Surface Composition Spectrometer (MASCS) instrument aboard NASA's MESSENGER spacecraft was designed to study both the exosphere and surface of the planet Mercury.
On April 14, a SpaceX Dragon cargo craft launched on a Falcon 9 rocket from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station on the company's sixth NASA-contracted resupply mission to the International Space Station.
MESSENGER mission controllers conducted a maneuver yesterday to raise the spacecraft's minimum altitude sufficiently to extend orbital operations and further delay the probe's inevitable impact onto Mercury's surface.
Two new papers from members of the MESSENGER Science Team provide global-scale maps of Mercury's surface chemistry that reveal previously unrecognized geochemical terranes large regions that have compositions distinct from their surroundings.
This mosaic of Caloris basin is an enhanced-color composite overlain on a monochrome mosaic.
The MESSENGER Education and Public Outreach (EPO) Team is reminding interested parties that the competition to name five impact craters on Mercury closes on January 15, 2015. The contest, open to everyone except members of the mission's EPO team, was launched on December 15, 2014.
The MESSENGER spacecraft will soon run literally on fumes.
The closest planet to the sun appears to get hit by a periodic meteor shower, possibly associated with a comet that produces multiple events annually on Earth.
NASA's MErcury Surface, Space ENvironment, GEochemistry, and Ranging (MESSENGER) spacecraft has provided the first optical images of ice and other frozen volatile materials within permanently shadowed craters near Mercury's north pole.
As millions of people observed the total lunar eclipse on October 8, MESSENGER was also watching.
Understanding the sun from afar isn't easy. How do you figure out what powers solar flares - the intense bursts of radiation coming from the release of magnetic energy associated with sunspots - when you must rely on observing only the light and particles that make their way to near-Earth's orbit?
On April 20, MESSENGER completed its 3,000th orbit of Mercury and moved closer to the planet than any spacecraft has been before, dropping to an altitude of 199 kilometers (123.7 miles) above the planet's surface.
The 1996 proposal for the mission promised a return of at least 1,000 images says Robert Gold, MESSENGER's Science Payload Manager.
Lennon crater was recently named to honor English musician/singer/songwriter John Lennon (1940-1980).
The steep walls of the crater Damer are highlighted in today's image.
Three named craters are featured prominently in this view.
The MESSENGER spacecraft has completed 1,000 Earth days of flight operations in orbit around Mercury.
The MESSENGER project is celebrating the posting today of the 1,000th featured image from Mercury. The Mercury Dual Imaging System (MDIS) team has posted a new image to the MESSENGER website approximately once per business day since March 29, 2011, when the first image obtained from orbit about the innermost planet was made public.
This false color image shows a bright fresh crater exhibiting possible evidence of a pyroclastic deposit on it's eastern side (shown by the bright yellow); as well as a series of secondaries which have excavated sub-surface material resulting in the blues seen in the north-east corner of the image.