In NASA's Lens, Mercury Comes Into Focus
Source: Kenneth Chang, New York Times Excerpt: On Wednesday NASA showed off some of the first pictures taken by its Mercury Messenger spacecraft, which is to spend at least a year photographing, measuring and studying the smallest planet. Mercury has been seen close up… in half a dozen flybys…: three by the Mariner 10 in the 1970s and three by the Messenger in the last three years. But now …planetary scientists will be able to get their first long look at the smallest of the eight planets. The day side of Mercury can broil at 800 degrees Fahrenheit; the night side drops to minus 300 degrees. Particularly intriguing, scientists say, are the shadows in craters near Mercury’s poles. There, the Sun never shines, and in the frigidity, some scientists expect that the Messenger will find frozen water. www.nytimes.com/2011/03/31/science/space/31mercury.html