Mercury in Color

[Brent]

http://messenger.jhuapl.edu/gallery/sciencePhotos/image.php?page=1&gallery_id=2&image_id=132

Taken by the MESSENGER spacecraft (too big to post, click link)

http://messenger.jhuapl.edu/gallery/sciencePhotos/pics/c1000_700_430.png

Gallery of Images

http://messenger.jhuapl.edu/gallery/sciencePhotos/view.php?gallery_id=2

 

[splodenode]

i dont see no color

 

[Kadratis]

Very subtle.

 

[Tralah]

It's not a particularly colorful planet in the first place.

 

[Gertch]

Cool! I just thought it'd be more silvery looking for some reason.

 

[M'Sharak]

^ With ripples?

 

[Roshi]

Pardon that n00b question but is Mercury revolving?
Nice picture, though.

 

[Vassa]

Short answer is yes.

How quickly is for you to discover.

http://www.google.com/search?source=ig&a...G=Google+Search

 

[Lindley]

[3PO]What a desolate place this is![/3PO]

 

[trekkiedane]

Mutenroshi said:
Pardon that n00b question but is Mercury revolving?
Nice picture, though.

Isn't there a classic SciFi-detective story about someone coming to earth after having lived there for some time, and some plot with the fact that it doesn't revolve?
-I'm thinking perhaps Clarke or Asimov.

Lindley said:
[3PO]What a desolate place this is![/3PO]

Now I have an indescribable urge to watch THAT!

 

[shipfisher]

Does Mercury revolve on it's own axis? I'm too lazy to head over to Wikipedia right now, but I seem to remember something about "tidal" forces from being in relatively close to the sun keeping one face of Mercury towards it, so I guess you could say Mercury turns once on it's own axis for every revolution it completes around the sun - pretty much what the moon is doing around earth (and a few moons in close to Jupiter and Saturn as well, I believe)

 

[M'Sharak]

trekkiedane said:

Mutenroshi said:
Pardon that n00b question but is Mercury revolving?
Nice picture, though.

Isn't there a classic SciFi-detective story about someone coming to earth after having lived there for some time, and some plot with the fact that it doesn't revolve?
-I'm thinking perhaps Clarke or Asimov.

I'm thinking I remember it: one hot side, one cold side, both so extreme that human habitation was only possible along a narrow band at the terminator? Can't recall any more than that; it must be 20+ years since I read it.

Edit:

Looks like Asimov's "The Dying Night" is a likely candidate.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mercury_in_fiction

 

[Maurice]

From this site: http://cseligman.com/text/planets/mercuryrot.htm

"Mercury rotates once every 58.647 days, which is exactly 2/3 of its orbital period of 87.970 days, so it turns on its axis exactly 1 1/2 times during one of its years, causing the stars to move 1 1/2 times around the sky, each year. During that time, it moves once around the Sun, causing the Sun to appear to move backwards relative to the stars, one full turn. As a result, it has only half a day during one year (1 1/2 forward rotations by the stars, less 1 backward motion by the Sun), so that it takes two years (175.942 Earth days) for one day, three times as long as its rotation period."

 

[I Grok Spock]

Hmm. Yet another celestial body that God bought at the scratch and dent sale.

 

[Ronald Held]

What other scientific data has been mentioned?