Mercury

Mercury in motion

Pete Baker on May 10, 2016, 4:23 pm | Readers 242

If you missed yesterday’s rare Mercury transit across the Sun – the last was in 2006, the next in 2019 – then where were you! [Busy… – Ed] But even if you were paying attention you’re unlikely to have had as wondrous a view as that of Nasa’s Solar Dynamics Observatory. They’ve helpfully released a stunning time-lapse video compressing the entire 7 hour spectacle into a digestible couple of minutes. I recommend switching to full screen mode and cranking up the volume. Enjoy! [Video …

“There’s no place like home…”

Pete Baker on July 24, 2013, 3:48 pm | Readers 83

I didn’t ‘Wave at Saturn’ on 19 July when the Cassini probe, orbiting the gas giant, was taking a high-definition image of the view back home. I don’t think it encouraged a proper sense of perspective… But the resultant image is stunning. [Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Space Science Institute] It’s not the first time Cassini has looked home. Nor is it the only stunning image the probe has provided. But, as those involved pointed out “We can’t see individual continents or people in this …

Mercury: “A world in and of its own”

Pete Baker on June 19, 2011, 5:08 pm | Readers 29

In March this year Nasa’s Messenger probe became the first spacecraft to orbit Mercury. And, as the BBC reports, a few days ago Nasa released the scientific observations and data collected during the first three months of its scheduled year-long mission. In the process a number of hypotheses about the innermost planet were consigned to the “dust bin of science”. Mercury is not like the Moon, nor like the Earth, and it’s not “the burnt-out cinder of the solar system”. [All images …

Messenger to Mercury

Pete Baker on March 17, 2011, 8:17 pm | Readers 3

Tonight at 12.45am [GMT] Nasa’s Messenger spacecraft will begin a 15 minute engine burn timed to take it into orbit around Mercury – the first spacecraft to do so. (All images credit: NASA/Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory/Carnegie Institution of Washington) Launched on 3 August 2004, Messenger’s taken a circuitous route to the innermost planet. It’s second, and final, look at the Earth was in August 2005. Twice past Venus, the second time in June 2007 Before not one, not two fly-bys, but …