Think the moon has many craters? New photos from the first spacecraft to orbit Mercury show the tiny inner planet has far more impressive battle scars from regular high-speed peltings by space rocks.
NASA's Messenger spacecraft, which began orbiting the planet less than two weeks ago, reveals a pock-marked planet full of craters from pieces of asteroids and comets.
"Mercury has had an exposed surface for at least 3.5 to 4 billion years and some of those surfaces are extremely cratered to the point where there are so many craters they start to obscure one another," said mission chief scientist Sean Solomon.
He said it was surprising how many secondary craters there are. Those are craters created by the falling soil kicked up from space rock collisions.
Those initial space rock crashes "throw out a lot of material in the explosive process," Solomon said.
Text: AP
Image: This picture provided by NASA and photographed by the spacecraft Messenger shows a never-before-imaged area of Mercury’s surface. (Photographs copyright AP)
NASA's Messenger spacecraft, which began orbiting the planet less than two weeks ago, reveals a pock-marked planet full of craters from pieces of asteroids and comets.
"Mercury has had an exposed surface for at least 3.5 to 4 billion years and some of those surfaces are extremely cratered to the point where there are so many craters they start to obscure one another," said mission chief scientist Sean Solomon.
He said it was surprising how many secondary craters there are. Those are craters created by the falling soil kicked up from space rock collisions.
Those initial space rock crashes "throw out a lot of material in the explosive process," Solomon said.
Text: AP
Image: This picture provided by NASA and photographed by the spacecraft Messenger shows a never-before-imaged area of Mercury’s surface. (Photographs copyright AP)
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