A
Mercury crater first imaged by Mariner 10 in the 1970s gets a fresh look from
NASA's MESSENGER probe.
The
60-mile (100-km) crater Machaut, named for a medieval French poet and composer,
seems to contain solidified lava flows and smaller craters. Scientists hope
that more new data from the latest MESSENGER flyby will provide additional
details.
MESSENGER
sped past the planet closest to the sun on Oct. 6, as the second of three
flybys that should allow it to settle into Mercury orbit in March 2011. The
spacecraft imaged 30 percent of never-before-seen planetary surface, and began beaming
back pictures on Oct. 7.
— NASA/APL/Carnegie and SPACE.com Staff
Credit: NASA/Johns
Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory/Carnegie Institution of
Washington
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