- @
- Followers:
No Tweets Found
CNN POLITICS ON FACEBOOK » | CNN POLITICS ON TWITTER »
First image of Mercury from orbit released
NASA released an image of the planet Mercury on Tuesday, the first obtained from a spacecraft orbiting the solar system's innermost planet.
The image is the first of many expected to come from the Messenger probe, the first space mission to orbit the planet closest to the sun. The Messenger spacecraft launched on August 3, 2004, and after flybys of Earth, Venus and Mercury, started its historic orbit around Mercury on March 17.
The dominant rayed crater in the upper portion of the image is Debussy, according to NASA. The smaller crater, Matabei, with its dark rays, is visible to the west of Debussy. The bottom portion of the full image, which can be seen here, is near Mercury's south pole and includes a region of Mercury's surface not previously seen by spacecraft.
Over the next three days, Messenger will acquire 1,185 more images in support of a phase to review spacecraft and instrument performance. The yearlong primary science phase of the mission will begin on April 4, during which it is expected to acquire more than 75,000 images.
The Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory built and operates the Messenger spacecraft and manages the Discovery-class mission for NASA. Messenger stands for MErcury Surface, Space ENvironment, GEochemistry, and Ranging.
On Twitter
On Twitter
@cnnbrk on Twitter
There's no such thing as Black & White digital cameras. Why does NASA only release B&W images to the public, first? Trying to hind something, maybe.. something that is much easier to edit out when the images have been converted to grayscale?
This is a color image. That's what Mercury looks like.
@Steve: And you know that how? I'm calling BS on that. The image is clearly grayscale. I don't care what kind of scientific excuse I hear for it, there is no such thing as digital black & white photography. This image has been edited.. period.
Well of course it's been edited. NASA doesn't exactly just go to Best Buy, get a 12 megapixel camera, duct tape it to a rocket, and send it on its way. They take "color" pictures by using multiple filters and combining the images. There's not much scientific value in straight color images, but using filters such as near infrared can get better contrast of features and provide more scientists with more useful information.
Although I'm sure they will release color pictures later, MESSENGER is still in a phase of testing out its instruments to make sure they still operate after a 6.5 year flight to Mercury. Plus, Mercury is mostly gray anyway...
First of all, I know that this is probably a color image because I have seen NASA images of Mercury before. This is not the first spacecraft to photograph Mercury after all.
Second, even if it isn't a color image, to say that there is no such thing as digital black and white photography is total ignorance. CCD detectors (i.e, how digital cameras work) have no color sensitivity at all. They only detect in black and white. In fact, the only reason your camera can take color pictures at all is because the CCD is covered in color filters that allow color information to be interpolated out of the raw data.
We rather see pictures of Uranus
Uranus does not make a pretty picture
I like what you're doing with your carbon dioxide Earth, we can be real twins soon!
Unfortunately Messenger will not release the raw RGB images that some of us can turn into color images like these of Mercury:
http://picasaweb.google.com/m/viewer#album/shineinnovations/5587196277118213121
The planet isn't all grey like the moon as shown in the image above. That image is one of many different filtered images, all in gray-scale until we combine them together. They don't have a color camera on board so if we take the RGB images we can make color images. They use the different filter images, different wavelength, to figure out what types of chemistry of the surface material the planet is made out of. They do have some RGB, red, green, and blue filters that are close to what wavelength that our eyes see that we can use to get a close approximation of what the planet looks like in color.
We have to wait 6 months before they release the raw filter images. This is the only time that NASA has done this, all of their other missions MER, CAssini, Galileo etc they have releases the raw images in a more timely manner???
I don't why there not releasing the raw images in a timely manner but I am sure it isn't a conspiracy. Their most likely reason is they want to hog the data so they're the first to publish papers about the findings. This spacecraft was paid for by American taxpayers so all the data should be released in a timely manner just like it was for the last ten years on other missions.
However with that being said, if this was Mars, Europa or Enceladus - places scientist claim that there may be evidence of past or present life, delaying release of data by the Messenger team would be looked at as a cover up by most people around the world.
Ron you moron....
Mercury Dual Imaging System (MDIS), a camera with wide and narrow fields-of-view, for monochrome, color, and stereo imaging.
Gamma-Ray and Neutron Spectrometer (GRNS), which maps the elemental makeup of Mercury’s crust.
X-Ray Spectrometer (XRS), also used to map elemental abundances in crustal materials.
Magnetometer (MAG), which maps the detailed structure and dynamics of Mercury's magnetic field and magnetosphere and searches for regions of magnetized crustal rocks.
Mercury Laser Altimeter (MLA), which measures the planet’s topography.
Mercury Atmospheric and Surface Composition Spectrometer (MASCS), which measures the abundance of atmospheric gases and detects minerals in surface materials.
Energetic Particle and Plasma Spectrometer (EPPS), which measures the makeup and characteristics of charged particles within and around Mercury's magnetosphere.
Dude - you don't know what you are talking about. So the MDIS has a color camera, it's not a conventional color camera. It doesn't automatically turn the image into color.
Go back to school and learn something....
I agree with you, Ron. NASA always holds back on releasing the color images to the public, until they've had plenty of time to edit them out first.
ML - Actually color camera's in the past missions wasn't top of NASA's agenda. However they can take the different filter images with different wavelength and turn them into approximate true color images by using the right RGB, wavelength filter combinations. Before Messenger that is what they did to make color images.
MSL, Mars Science Laboratory due to be launched in Nov 2011 will have a fully functional color camera aboard, so for the first time we will see true color of the Martian surface - be ready to be surprised on the color of the Martian sky when this happens, some blue in the Martian sky at different times of the day. In fact James Cameron 3D camera was slated to go on the MSL but couldn't be added in time, see here:
http://www.space.com/11241-nasa-mars-rover-3d-camera-james-cameron.html
Meh ... kinda looks like I expected it to.
Did anybody besides me think I would look different? It's kinda disappointing cuz it looks like the moon =(
*YAWN* Looks exactly like the moon...
lol @ self.. thank god for typos or I don't think I would ever laugh. In my comment I wrote "I" and not "it". So yeah, without a picture do you think I would look different? *facepalm*
God bless every1 good scripture adam polchaka!
There are six gold cased Hasselblad cameras left on the moon from (1969-1972). The Apollo missions took the film but left them to save weight. Anybody who can get up there can have them for free. Open statement from NASA after Apollo 17 returned in 1972...
It's clear from that photo that the satellite is about to crash...
Do you have your hard hat on?
OMG...It's a close-up of Charlie Sheen's busted crack pipe.... Winning.... I can see the Trolls now,,,
Ever heard of a zooming?
No, its obviously the close up of a trolls face.
I am hoping this MESSENGER has some Proactive cream on it, this planet has some serious crater issues. Hey!! what does Charlie Sheen's buttoxe have in common with Mercury surface?
Gee Wiz. All this money spent just to find out that Mercury looks just like Arizona!
LOL!!
Drivel
I read all this stuff you all type from somewhere in this world.... you type this and that... what a bad joke!
99% of you bloggers (actually ; you should be called bugers) must have all failed english in school, picked your
nose alot and scratched your butt in public.... because you all certainly did not learn anything that would inspire me
to read this horse pie. Information these days is mostly made up of opinions.... not fact. Funny thing ..... God help us
all if you ever have a position in management.
Clearly from this post you have gotten 92% dumber
People need to stop pretending they don't know about planets.
hehe a few more budget cuts and they will be asking what country are we in.
Whats a planet?
Believe it or not, I ran into someone who didn't even know there were other galaxies out there...
When Halley's Comet passed by years ago, I couldn't beleive my (then) 30-something sister-in-law didn't even know what a comet was. Of course, she could recite every bible verse, though. I really think schools need to whack kids over the head with rulers to get them to pay attention to something other than their cell phones and iPods.
I thought Mercury was liquid.
Silly Donna. Mercury is an offspring of Ford Motor Company.
Just last week, CNN claimed that Mercury was a plant, not a planet.
I just wonder how this planet keeps getting into our fish? That was a joke folks.
Yeah, how do they woirk?
Astronauts get higher...
to infinity and beyond!!!!!!!
Great picture. I've always been interested in the harder to see planets, with Mercury being so close to the sun. I am looking forward to more great images of Mercury.
But why is the picture black and white, can't NASA afford some good quality HD color cameras? I'd rather wait a little longer for a good high quality color image than a grainy black and white picture.
@TechGromit: Maybe this photo *is* in color. Maybe that's what Mercury looks like in color .
It's a reminder that there's more to this universe than humans and earth. Beautiful
Agreed