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Sunday 20 March 2011

Mercury Rising

In another of those space stories that never cease to amaze me, NASA's Messenger Probe has arrived at Mercury and thus become the first probe to do so. The spacecraft is now some 46 million km (29 million miles) from the Sun, and about 155 million km (96 million miles) from Earth.

How mind blowing is that and what will it find?

Mercury's proximity to the Sun means exposed equator surfaces can reach more than 600C; and yet there may be water-ice at the poles in craters that are in permanent shadow. Mercury also retains a magnetic field, something which is absent on Venus and Mars.

If only we could find away to really travel the Solar System, and the Galaxy to see for ourselves ... maybe to quote the immortal words *"I've seen things you people wouldn't believe. Attack ships on fire off the shoulder of Orion. I watched C-beams glitter in the dark near the Tannhauser gate. All those moments will be lost in time, like tears in rain .... Time to die."

Ah well, I will just have to feed off photo's and artists impressions .....

Sunrise On Mercury
* Rutger Hauer as the Replicant Roy Batty in Ridley Scott's Cult Film 'Blade Runner'.
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4 comments:

  1. Kev Dixon21 March 2011 at 17:08

    To be more accurate it is the first probe to go into orbit around Mercury. A few other probes has been there before, but it was just a drive by mission. This one has a bit more of a long term stay about it.

    Still hats off to NASA for getting it bang on target again, especially since they lost another rocket/staelite the weeke before.

    I was amazed when they hit a small lump of icy rock in the middle of inter-planetary space, with something the size of a dustbin. And yet the same people fire rockets that can't detect a wedding from an arms dump in Afganistan.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. No PC20 July 2014 at 22:01

      Hey ... didn't see this comment when made. Just spotted the Anon comment. Sorry about that mate. By coincidence I'm watching the NASA Moonwalk film on Quest as I reply .,... very weird!

      Delete
  2. Anonymous20 July 2014 at 20:36

    Good point LOL

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. No PC20 July 2014 at 22:02

      Thanks mate. I wouldn't have seen the other post comment if not for yours .... yes he did make a good point.

      Delete

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