Mercury up close

[Bill Morris]

Here's the first photo from NASA's Messenger (MErcury Surface, Space ENvironment, GEochemistry and Ranging spacecraft), taken from 125 miles over the surface of Mercury. It will be mapping the entire planet in detail with high-res pix.

 

[M'Sharak]

Different from the color image we saw back in March, but rather nifty and very sharp.

 

[Outpost4]

Here's another earlier Messenger picture. Assuming everything continues to go well with the spacecraft, there are going to be a plethora of Mercury pictures.

Click on thumbnail for full-rez version

 

[TheMasterOfOrion]

Great pic , but I wonder why after going all the way to Mercury did NASA not put a lander on its space probe like it has done with its Titan and Mars missions.

 

[Maurice]

^^^$$$ mostly, and what they'd expect to find.

 

[Newspaper Taxi]

"Hmm...looks like there's a bunch of rocks and...guess what? It's really hot."

 

[diankra]

Great pic , but I wonder why after going all the way to Mercury did NASA not put a lander on its space probe like it has done with its Titan and Mars missions.

Though landers would always be nice, they're far more useful if you're dealing with an atmosphere which either interferes with observations from orbit (Titan) or provides an active weather pattern that shapes the surface (both).
Also, on Mars landing sites could be chosen from the data from previous orbiters (and several fly-bys). Messenger is the first Mercury orbiter, after a single fly-by mission 30+ years ago. The data it returns could identify sites that would be really worth targeting with a lander next time.

 

[TEH BABA]

This pic is faked just kidding cool image. Make a 14900 by 900 image for teh baba

 

[Bill Morris]

Notice that using the OP image for Windows wallpaper puts some of your desktop icons in the Twilight Zone.