The Daily Croissant

Eclectic Perambulations in the Noosphere

  • Degas : a Crater Painted Blue

    • 5 Mar 2012
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    • Craters March 05 2012 Mercury
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    MESSENGER wide-angle camera image of Degas crater

    "This image, acquired by NASA’s MESSENGER spacecraft on December 12, 2011, reveals the blue coloration of the 32-mile (52-km) -wide Degas crater located in Mercury’s Sobkou Planitia region.

    Degas’ bright central peaks are highly reflective in this view, and may be surrounded by hollows — patches of sunken, eroded ground first identified by MESSENGER last year.

    Such blue-colored material within craters has been increasingly identified as more of Mercury’s surface is revealed in detail by MESSENGER images. It is likely due to an as-yet-unspecified type of dark subsurface rock, revealed by impact events."

    via universetoday.com

     

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  • Mercury's Surface in Exaggerated Color

    • 19 Jun 2011
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    • 18June11 Astronomy Mercury
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    Media_httpapodnasagov_bngga
    "The robotic MESSENGER spacecraft recently completed over 100 orbits of Mercury. Messenger's cameras have recorded detailed pictures utilizing eight different colors across visible and near infrared light, exploring the surface composition and looking for clues to the history and evolution of the solar system's innermost planet. This sharp image combines three of the MESSENGER wide angle camera's colors, but in exaggerated fashion. Otherwise, to the unaided human eye, Mercury's surface colors would appear comparatively muted. The image is about 1,000 kilometers across and features as small as a single kilometer are discernible at the original resolution. Today, the Messenger project will release new images and science findings from the first spacecraft to orbit Mercury."  
    via apod.nasa.gov

     

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  • Violent U.S. Storms in 3D, Riding with Rhea and X Marks the Spot

    • 29 Apr 2011
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    • 29Apr11 Astronomy Cassini Earth Earth from Space Mars Mercury Moons Saturn Weather
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    A simulated 3-D flyby of the TRMM satellite around severe storms on Aprill 28, 2011
    Credit: NASA/SSAI, Hal Pierce

    "NASA’s Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM) satellite captured 3-D images of severe thunderstorms that were spawning tornadoes over the eastern United States on April 28, detecting massive thunderstorms and very heavy rainfall. Tornadoes associated with this extremely unstable weather left at least 202 dead across the Eastern U.S, with injuries numbering over a thousand." 
    via universetoday.com

     

    Animation made from raw Cassini image data acquired April 25, 2011

    "Assembled from 29 raw images taken by the Cassini orbiter on Monday, April 25, this animation brings us along an orbital ride with Rhea as it crosses Saturn’s nighttime face, the planet’s shadow cast across the ringplane. Sister moons Dione and Tethys travel the opposite lane in the background, eventually appearing to sink into Saturn’s atmosphere." 
    via universetoday.com

     

    Media_httpwwwuniverse_mfiei

    An unnamed crater on Mercury taken by MESSENGER's Narrow Angle Camera. Credit:
    NASA/Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory/Carnegie Institution of Washington

    "Buried treasure on Mercury? If so, I’d look here first. This image shows a currently unnamed crater with an “X” emblazoned on it. The perpendicular lines that cross the crater are secondary crater chains caused by ejecta from two primary impacts outside of the field of view, according to MESSENGER scientists. MESSENGER has been in orbit of Mercury since mid-March of this year, and its Mercury Dual Imaging System (MDIS) pivot and Narrow Angle Camera (NAC) spotted this unusual landform. MESSENGER will be mapping more than 90% of Mercury’s surface as part of a high-resolution surface morphology base map that will be created with MDIS."

    via universetoday.com

     

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  • A Double Ringed Basin on Mercury

    • 20 Nov 2009
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    • Mercury solar system
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    Media_httpapodnasagovapodimage0910doublebasinmessengerjpg_lmqascdaaggewxb
    via apod.nasa.gov

     

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