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| A NASA spacecraft gliding over the surface of Mercury has revealed that the planet's atmosphere, magnetosphere, and its geological past display greater levels of activity than scientists first suspected. The probe also discovered a large impact basin named "Rembrandt" measuring about 430 miles in diameter.
These new findings and more are reported in four papers published in the May 1 issue of Science magazine. The data come from the Mercury Surface, Space Environment, Geochemistry, and Ranging spacecraft--MESSENGER for short. On Oct. 6, 2008, MESSENGER flew by Mercury for the second time, capturing more than 1,200 high-resolution and color images of the planet. "This second Mercury flyby provided a number of new findings," said Sean Solomon, the probe's principal investigator from the Carnegie Institution of Washington. "One of the biggest surprises was how strongly [Mercury's magnetosphere] had changed from what we saw during the first flyby in January 2008." The magnetosphere is a region of space around Mercury enveloped by the planet's magnetic field. Gusty solar wind buffeting the global bubble of magnetism can potentially trigger magnetic storms and other space weather-related phenomena. |
source= Nasa News
