The 8 planets plus Pluto with planetary axis tilt || planets3x3_pluto_colorMercury_axis_tilt_1080p.00001_print.jpg (1024x576) [75.1 KB] || planets3x3_pluto_colorMercury_axis_tilt_1080p.00001_searchweb.png (320x180) [49.6 KB] || planets3x3_pluto_colorMercury_axis_tilt_1080p.00001_thm.png (80x40) [5.0 KB] || planets3x3_pluto_colorMercury_axis_tilt_720p.00001_web.png (320x180) [50.6 KB] || planets3x3_pluto_colorMercury_axis_tilt_720p.00001_thm.png (80x40) [5.0 KB] || planets3x3_pluto_colorMercury_axis_tilt_1080p.mp4 (1920x1080) [9.2 MB] || planets3x3_pluto_colorMercury_axis_tilt_720p.mp4 (1280x720) [4.7 MB] || planets3x3_pluto_colorMercury_axis_tilt_1080p.webm (1920x1080) [2.7 MB] || planets3x3_pluto_colorMercury_axis_tilt_2160p.mp4 (3840x2160) [28.7 MB] || 3x3_pluto_tilt (4104x2304) [0 Item(s)] || 100-science-overview-001.hwshow ||

Global view of Mercury from NASA’s MESSENGER spacecraft. || MercuryGlobeMESSENGER.gif (1200x675) [12.7 MB] || MercuryGlobePreview_print.jpg (1024x576) [51.6 KB] || MercuryGlobePreview.jpg (3840x2160) [664.3 KB] || MercuryGlobePreview_searchweb.png (320x180) [18.5 KB] || MercuryGlobePreview_thm.png (80x40) [1.6 KB] || Mercury_Globe_MESSENGER_Small.mp4 (3840x2160) [73.8 MB] || Mercury_Globe_MESSENGER_Large.webm (3840x2160) [20.4 MB] || Mercury_Globe_MESSENGER.mov (3840x2160) [9.9 GB] || Mercury_Globe_MESSENGER_Large.mp4 (3840x2160) [1.4 GB] || Mercury_Globe_MESSENGER_Medium.mp4 (3840x2160) [381.3 MB] ||

Three orbits of MESSENGER at different altitudes show small magnetic field signals from rocks magnetized early in Mercury's history. The signals are strongest at the lowest altitude. || mercury_magnetometry_print.jpg (1024x576) [134.6 KB] || mercury_magnetometry_searchweb.png (320x180) [66.9 KB] || mercury_magnetometry_thm.png (80x40) [4.8 KB] || mercury_magnetometry.tif (2800x3600) [5.4 MB] ||

Mercury orbits the Sun in a unique regime. The solar wind is still fresh from the Sun, and the Sun’s magnetic field strength (which drops with the square of distance) is rapidly waning. Furthermore, Mercury’s highly elliptical orbit means the planet passes through a wider range of distances from the Sun than any other planet. As a result, Mercury provides a unique opportunity to study how the Sun’s influence on a planet varies with distance.These animations provide a conceptual schematic of the results of one such investigation as described in “Occurrence rate of ultra-low frequency waves in the foreshock of Mercury increases with heliocentric distance.” Using data from NASA’s MESSENGER spacecraft, the authors has detected Ultra Low Frequency (ULF) waves rebounding from Mercury’s foreshock, the turbulent area where solar wind particles collide with Mercury’s magnetosphere. These waves are caused by solar wind protons – the steady stream of particles escaping the Sun –collide with and reflect off of this foreshock against the stream of the solar wind. The authors discovered that the ULF wave production rate varied throughout Mercury’s orbit. MESSENGER detected more ULF waves as Mercury moved farther from the Sun in its orbit, and fewer as it approached the Sun. The results support an existing theory that claimed that ULF waves are affected in part by the strength of the solar magnetic field, which is at its weakest when Mercury is farthest from the Sun. ||

NASA’s MErcury Surface, Space ENvironment, GEochemistry, and Ranging (MESSENGER) mission has unveiled the first global digital elevation model (DEM) of Mercury, revealing in stunning detail the topography across the entire innermost planet and paving the way for scientists to fully characterize Mercury’s geologic history.In the colorized map, purple and blue colors indicate lower elevations while yellows and red show high elevations. ||

Shown in red are areas of Mercury’s north polar region that are in shadow in all images acquired by MESSENGER to date. Image coverage, and mapping of shadows, is incomplete near the pole. The polar deposits imaged by Earth-based radar are in yellow, and the background image is the mosaic of MESSENGER images. This comparison indicates that all of the polar deposits imaged by Earth-based radar are located in areas of persistent shadow as documented by MESSENGER images. ||

This high-resolution mosaic of images shows Mercury as it appeared to Messenger as the spacecraft departed the planet following the mission's first flyby of Mercury. This mosaic resembles the historic first image transmitted back to Earth after that flyby and shows a portion of the planet never previously seen by spacecraft. The Messenger mission is on track to become the first spacecraft ever to orbit Mercury. ||

This spectacular color mosaic shows the eastern limb of Mercury as seen by Messenger as the spacecraft departed the planet following the mission's first Mercury flyby in January 2008. The colors of this image are not those that would be seen by the human eye but instead convey information about the distribution of different rock types on Mercury's surface. The different rock types result in subtle color variations across all of the 11 WAC narrow-band color filters. The Caloris basin, visible as a large bright yellow circular area in this image due to its infill of volcanic plains, dominates the northern region. A similar image was published in Science magazine in July 2008, but it only covered the northern half of the region shown here. To create this larger color mosaic, Messenger Science Team members had to also devise a method to deal with scattered light in the 11 different WAC filters. Messenger has obtained color imaging at this resolution only for the portions of Mercury seen on departure from Mercury flybys 1 and 2. ||

Although the moon has remained largely unchanged during human history, our understanding of it and how it has evolved over time has evolved dramatically. Thanks to new measurements, we have new and unprecedented views of its surface, along with new insight into how it and other rocky planets in our solar system came to look the way they do. See some of the sights and learn more about the moon here! ||

This visualization of the topography of Mars was created for Maria Zuber's Carl Sagan Lecture. The camera flies over several areas of interest. The south pole, Tharsis Rise, the north pole, and Valles Marineris. This animation was created using Maya and Renderman, using MOLA Topography data. The colors represent height - dark blue is about 8km deep and white is over 14km high (as measured from an arbitrary location picked as 'sea-level'). ||