Los hermanos de la Tierra: Dentro de los planetas
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vía SPACE
Superficie de Mercurio.
MESSENGER wide-angle camera image of Mercury’s surface acquired July 5, 2011.
This latest image from NASA’s MESSENGER spacecraft, now in its extended mission around Mercury, shows a color view of a section of the first planet’s rugged and sun-blasted surface.
Mooning Mercury
This discovery image provides the first evidence that Mercury has a small natural satellite or moon. Visible as a small bright spot in this image taken in March 31, 2012 by MESSENGER, the moon is approximately 70 meters in diameter and orbits Mercury at a mean distance of 14,300 km.
A proposal to name the moon “Caduceus,” after the staff carried by the Roman god Mercury, has been submitted by the MESSENGER team to the International Astronomical Union, the body responsible for assigning names to celestial objects.
This discovery presents an unprecedented opportunity for a return of samples from the Mercury system. In an emergency meeting yesterday evening The MESSENGER team took a unanimous decision to use the remaining propellant to crash MESSENGER into Caduceus. With the right timing and trajectory, MESSENGER will impart just enough momentum to the moon to break it free of Mercury’s gravity well and set it on an Earth-crossing trajectory suitable for recovery as a Mercury meteorite.
If Caduceus is successfully released from the pull of Mercury and placed on a course to reach Earth, we can expect the moon to arrive at Earth by 2014. The MESSENGER team have designed a trajectory that will bring the moon to Earth at a remote location on the Wilkes Land ice sheet in Antarctica within reach for retrieval by the scientific staff at the U.S.-operated McMurdo Station.
Curioso curioso…
