MESSENGER Takes First Picture While in Mercury's Orbit

[aaroniouse]

what I like best is the big white diamond shape of merkery.

[Dorisequador]

Nice cartoon and garbage from Nasa again..

[texx0101]

epicness nasa has a youtube channel oh yeah cool video and stuff =D

[nessfek]

hahaha scared me 0:45

[juanurrego1984]

mercurio es una bola gigante de metal mucho mas densa que la tierra seria hermoso ir no?

[nessfek]

@juanurrego1984 la verdad no el mejor planeta sera la tierra

[Films4You]

Reminds me of the look of our Moon

[RCxNZ]

just give a heads up once livable.

[spacestevie2]

Majel Barret is no longer with us. She passed away recently so she couldn't do the voice.

[Nomoreidsleft]

@bootstomp2010 NASA produces too many of these video to have Majel do the voices. I don't think she has the time, even if she wanted to. But you are right she does sound a lot like Majel.

[Ramshobraja]

I do wonder if Mercury has any water or water vapor.

[Pers0ni]

That thing is going extremely fast..the speed of light in reality

[spacestevie2]

The thermal blanket of MESSENGER is made of a ceramic composite that is flexible. The temperature on the sun side can be 400 Degrees while the shaded side is room temperature. The blanket was thoroughly tested at the Glenn Space Center in Cincinnati.

More information about Messenger's Thermal protection system can be read at:

messenger.jhuapl.edu/spacecraf­t/thermal.html

[foxdmulder]

<----wonders how ''edited'' this picture was before posting.

[mantovannni]

nice pics ty for sharing

[MIZQUITLI]

Yep looks like the moon thanks NASA.

[home2night2]

@MIZQUITLI yes it dose look like the moon

[AngilasGuy]

Looks like the moon.... >_>

But regardless, YOU ROCK NASA. I wish I could throw more tax dollars at you.

[trile666]

More pics pls pls pls :))))

[hackneysaregreat]

Incredible achievement, thanks for all the sharing this with us at NASA.

[Jarethenator]

So much win...

[JabberCT]

Pause at 20 and it looks like a letter "S" in a crater.

[ZeroC0ol1989]

What are the compounds of Mercury and why does it look like our moon?

[Infordust]

NASA FTW!

[barch118]

amazing

[todanp]

@ 0:45 wweeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee­eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee

[0802epo]

Does anybody know what kind of material the satellite is build with? Because seriously when the sun "hits" it it must get pretty hot..

[Sim0Na18]

@0802epo I believe that it is protected with a thermal blanket :) I know that hubble has one

[mach206]

@ 16 sec lol. space-crap......

[todanp]

@mach206 bahahaa



[titan90000]

Awesome! Can't wait to see more images from Messenger.

[Hellstenen]

Go the other way. >:(

[nutsbutdum]

Does anybody know what kind of material they are using to protect it from the heat of the Sun?

One could think that at that distance the satellite would melt like an ice cube on a hot plate, but apparently that little sucker is still hanging in there:)

[Saukko31]

@nutsbutdum Heat shield is ceramic. Surface temperature on Mercury reaches over 400 °C so probes solar arrays must quite robust too.

[AmusingYeti]

Amazing.

[venomxus]

The surface looks similar to the moon with all the craters.

[KissesLoveKawaii]

i came!

[0802epo]

Kind of cool that it can resist the heat from the sun.. that close.

[Viperzz21]

@0802epo it's still very cold in open space over there ;)

[0802epo]

@Viperzz21 Ah ok, :P

[BananaHurricane]

@0802epo Mercury is both very hot and very cold. It doesn't hold the heat due to the lack of an atmosphere, so the day side is very hot, while the night side is very cold.

[0802epo]

@BananaHurricane Ya I knew that. I meant that it was so close to the sun now, because mercury is the closest planet to the sun.

[Viracocha711]

@BananaHurricane Right! So, you know there is a small sliver of land that is always nice an comfy! As long as you keep moving! I think a one day on Mercury is equal to 58 days on Earth so you would not have to move very fast.