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In Perspective, Planet: A Picture from Planet Mercury! And what is there there?

Asher Kelman

OPF Owner/Editor-in-Chief
NASAhas just published the first ever orbit Messenger spacecraft picture as it orbits the planet.


531749main_MESSENGEROrbitImage.jpg


Credit: NASA/Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory/Carnegie Institution of Washington
Read more here

Now can anyone make out what that tiny tall structure is at about 1 inch from the top and left side? Seems to have two shadows!!

More on the Messenger Spacecraft Project here.

Asher
 

Doug Kerr

Well-known member
Hi, Asher,

NASAhas just published the first ever orbit Messenger spacecraft picture as it orbits the planet.

Now can anyone make out what that tiny tall structure is at about 1 inch from the top and left side? Seems to have two shadows!!

I doubt that those are shadows of the "object", since they seem to increase in width as we go away from the object (unless they are shadows of two lights mounted near the object at the time of the photo!).

Or perhaps the object is a tall tower increasing in diameter as we go up (but then why two "shadows"?).

But they might be the result of "shading" the surrounding surface from change from some event that occurred near the object in the past.

Fabulous image in any event!

Best regards,

Doug
 

Asher Kelman

OPF Owner/Editor-in-Chief
Hi, Asher,



I doubt that those are shadows of the "object", since they seem to increase in width as we go away from the object (unless they are shadows of two lights mounted near the object at the time of the photo!).

Or perhaps the object is a tall tower increasing in diameter as we go up (but then why two "shadows"?).

But they might be the result of "shading" the surrounding surface from change from some event that occurred near the object in the past.

Fabulous image in any event!

Best regards,

Doug

Maybe it's the entire Mercury civilization lives there? No doubt there will be high resolution photographs and taken with multispectral cameras so we'll soon know much more! I wonder what the scale is?

Asher
 
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