| Mercury,
the closest planet to the Sun, remains the most mysterious of the Solar
System's inner planets. Hiding in the Sun's glare it is a difficult target
for Earth bound observers. The only spacecraft to explore Mercury close-up
was Mariner 10 which executed 3 flybys of Mercury in 1974 and 1975, surveying
approximately 45 percent of its surface. Mariner 10 deftly manuevered to
photograph part of the sunlit hemisphere during each approach, passed behind
the planet, and continued to image the sun-facing side as the spacecraft
receded. |
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Its
highest resolution photographs recorded features approximately a mile across.
A recent reprocessing of the Mariner 10 data has resulted in this dramatic
mosaic. Like the Earth's Moon, Mercury's surface shows the scars of impact
cratering - the smooth vertical band and patches visible above represent
regions where no image information is available. |
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