August 3, 2013

Mercury, Fully Mapped in All Its Glory

What does Mercury’s surface look like?

A weekly newsletter featuring the biggest ideas from the smartest people

What does Mercury’s surface look like?

The video below will give you an exaggerated (false color) view. However, what it also reveals is detailed observations of the planet’s crust that have been recorded since the robotic Messenger spacecraft first passed Mercury in 2008 and began orbiting in 2011.

The entire surface of Mercury has since been mapped.

The results are presented in this spectacular video here:

Or click here.

Image Credit: NASA/JHU Applied Physics Lab/Carnegie Inst. Washington

A weekly newsletter featuring the biggest ideas from the smartest people

Grayscale image showing a flying object captured on radar screen with various data markings.

13.8

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Thinking

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Business

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10 min

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with

Sam Harris

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Ask Ethan: How do scientists color the Universe?

When we see pictures from Hubble or JWST, they show the Universe in a series of brilliant colors. But what do those colors really tell us?

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