Comments on: Spiders on Mercury!

By: Wayne H

Wayne H — Tue, 05 Feb 2008 02:21:57 +0000

A bit late to the party, but it’s almost certainly chance superposition. I tracked the lines of many of the troughs: They do not centre on the crater. See for yourself:
http://upload.hattix.co.uk/files/caloris_messenger.png

By: Barton Paul Levenson

Barton Paul Levenson — Fri, 01 Feb 2008 15:16:34 +0000

Astro writes:

[[Why are they pulling mesenger away from mercury already?
it just got there and on the planetary.org blog it has shots of it pulling away already.]]

It’s not orbiting Mercury yet, it’s on a fly-by as it continues around the sun. It will take another couple of solar orbits before it’s going slowly enough to enter Mercury orbit (in 2009, I think).

By: Astro

Astro — Fri, 01 Feb 2008 05:28:59 +0000

Why are they pulling mesenger away from mercury already?
it just got there and on the planetary.org blog it has shots of it pulling away already.

where it is it heading next ?

By: Gary Ansorge

Gary Ansorge — Fri, 01 Feb 2008 01:11:24 +0000

Majy:
I’ve seen some pics that were designed to provoke that very same illusion. Stare at what appears to be an indented hole surrounded by rills and after a while it inverts and appears to be a mountain peak surrounded by circular valleys.

GAry 7

By: Majy

Majy — Thu, 31 Jan 2008 22:04:38 +0000

Phil,

Is there any reason that when I look at pictures like this that the craters and cracks look like bumps to me? They don’t look indented; they look like bumps and hills. I even tried turning the picture 180 deg. Still looks like bumps. This happens all the time to me when I look at pics of craters… weird. Some kind of optical illusion?

Majy

By: alfaniner

alfaniner — Thu, 31 Jan 2008 20:38:08 +0000

Did a little playing around in Paint. Invert the colors, flip it vertically, and it looks like the Death Star exploding!

By: Spankermatic

Spankermatic — Thu, 31 Jan 2008 20:17:31 +0000

Thanks Tulle. Much appreciated. 1\3rd eh? Thats a bit of a drop in resolution.

By: Gary Ansorge

Gary Ansorge — Thu, 31 Jan 2008 18:30:48 +0000

With all(nearly) of the light gasses blown off by the intense solar radiation, Mercury must be mostly heavy metals. I’ll bet there is a great concentration of radioactive metals in the core and maybe even in the crust. Perhaps one day we’ll have mining consortiums on Mercury extracting them for use throughout the solar system.
An active “hot” core would explain the magnetic field. Even though it has nearly no rotation to churn the core, there must be convection currents of liquid iron and that would generate a weak magnetic field.

GAry 7

By: Eddie

Eddie — Thu, 31 Jan 2008 18:25:28 +0000

RCH is currently foaming at the mouth. Literally.

By: themadlolscientist

themadlolscientist — Thu, 31 Jan 2008 17:41:56 +0000

@alfaniner – I thought it looked like a stick figure alien too. Those Nazcans sure get around!

By: flynjack

flynjack — Thu, 31 Jan 2008 17:23:45 +0000

Looks volcanic to me. I would love to see it in 3D. Kind of a mini Olympus Mons overlaid with impact craters.

By: Capt. Kirk

Capt. Kirk — Thu, 31 Jan 2008 16:26:59 +0000

Why is anyone surprised about those cracks and wrinkles? Mercury is old and has never used sunscreen.

By: alfaniner

alfaniner — Thu, 31 Jan 2008 15:54:27 +0000

It’s that skinny stick-like alien from the finale of Close Encounters of the Third Kind. His arms are spread wide like in the movie and he is looking up and to the right.

By: StevoR

StevoR — Thu, 31 Jan 2008 15:16:55 +0000

Ooops.

Sorry folks – the messages hadn’t come through – I got some computer gibberish .. & now I find they’ve all come through at once.

My apologies.

By: StevoR

StevoR — Thu, 31 Jan 2008 15:14:35 +0000

Do’h forget that emoticon Iemant toadd totheabove post!

Plus had trouble posting … & as always where’s the editing capacity when you need it!

***

Today Feb. 1st (date in Adelaide now anyway) marks the 5th anniversary of the loss of the space shuttle Columbia on re-entry into the Earth’s atmosphere :

Vale ‘Columbia’ & its crew of Commander Rick Husband, Pilot William McCool, David Brown, Michael Anderson, David Brown, Ilan Ramon & Kalpana Chawla : Gone but not forgotten.

By: StevoR

StevoR — Thu, 31 Jan 2008 15:12:25 +0000

Thanks. Brilliant images & great news. Gather there’s volcanism and shrinkage of the planet and all sorts going on there & I’m looking forward to hearing more.

There’s a Steve T there now? Watch out mate, you don’t want to get confused with me – I’ve said the odd .. er ..controversial … thing here before & probably will again …

By: StevoR

StevoR — Thu, 31 Jan 2008 15:11:39 +0000

Thanks. Brilliant images & great news. Gather there’s volcanism and shrinkage of the planet and all sorts going on there & I’m looking forward to hearing more.

There’s a Steve T there now? Watch out mate, you don’t want to get confused with me – I’ve said the odd .. er ..controversial … thing here before & probably will again ..

—————————————
Today Feb. 1st (in Adelaide now anyway) marks the 5th anniversary of the loss of the space shuttle Columbia on re-entry into the Earth’s atmosphere :

Vale ‘Columbia’ & its crew of Commander Rick Husband, Pilot William McCool, David Brown, Michael Anderson, David Brown, Ilan Ramon & Kalpana Chawla : Gone but not forgotten.

Per aspera ad astra – ‘Through difficulties to the stars.’
- Latin proverb. (Quoted by Isaac Asimov in ‘Trends’ in “The Early Asimov vol. 1?, Granada, 1972.)

By: StevoR

StevoR — Thu, 31 Jan 2008 15:10:25 +0000

Today Feb. 1st (in Adelaide now anyway) marks the 5th anniversary of the loss of the space shuttle Columbia on re-entry into the Earth’s atmosphere :

Vale ‘Columbia’ & its crew of Commander Rick Husband, Pilot William McCool, David Brown, Michael Anderson, David Brown, Ilan Ramon & Kalpana Chawla : Gone but not forgotten.

Per aspera ad astra – ‘Through difficulties to the stars.’
- Latin proverb. (Quoted by Isaac Asimov in ‘Trends’ in “The Early Asimov vol. 1?, Granada, 1972.)

By: vrtulobjeq

vrtulobjeq — Thu, 31 Jan 2008 15:09:50 +0000

Cool, yes I think it will be more interesting when we may be able to check out the topograhic and tomographic views of these scapes ?

By: StevoR

StevoR — Thu, 31 Jan 2008 15:04:46 +0000

Thanks. Brilliant news & images – I gather there’s volcanism and planetary shrinkage and all sorts going on there & look forward to hearing more ..

There’s a Steve T now? Watch out mate, you don’t want to get confused with me* – you may end up lynched!

* I’ve posted the odd ..ah ..controversial .. comment here on occassion ..

——————————————-

5 years ago today (1st Feb, already here in Adelaide) teh space shuttel Columbia broke up on re-entry.

Vale ‘Columbia’ & its crew of Commander Rick Husband, Pilot William McCool, David Brown, Michael Anderson, David Brown, Ilan Ramon & Kalpana Chawla : Gone but not forgotten.

Per aspera ad astra – ‘Through difficulties to the stars.’
- Latin proverb. (Quoted by Isaac Asimov in ‘Trends’ in “The Early Asimov vol. 1?, Granada, 1972.)

By: Blinky

Blinky — Thu, 31 Jan 2008 13:53:13 +0000

I thought the spiders came from Mars.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0086643/

By: Donnie B.

Donnie B. — Thu, 31 Jan 2008 13:52:40 +0000

Hey, if I were stuck that close to the Sun, I’d have a pretty serious pucker going too.

By: Dave Pearson

Dave Pearson — Thu, 31 Jan 2008 13:49:11 +0000

Spider? I’m seeing an xkcd stick man (from here for example).

By: Scrolli

Scrolli — Thu, 31 Jan 2008 13:43:35 +0000

Hey!, what do you suppose it would look like on Mercury if it gets a direct hit from a solar flare?

By: DennyMo

DennyMo — Thu, 31 Jan 2008 13:41:54 +0000

It’s a marking left there by the Ramans, to remind us they’ll be coming back.