MESSENGER Global Mercury Mosaic, Based on flybys 1, 2, and 3 (plus M10) |
MESSENGER Global Mercury Mosaic, Based on flybys 1, 2, and 3 (plus M10) |
Dec 15 2009, 05:47 PM
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Administrator Group: Admin Posts: 5172 Joined: 4-August 05 From: Pasadena, CA, USA, Earth Member No.: 454 |
MESSENGER Team Releases First Global Map of Mercury
NASA’s MESSENGER mission team and cartographic experts from the U. S. Geological Survey have created a critical tool for planning the first orbital observations of the planet Mercury – a global mosaic of the planet that will help scientists pinpoint craters, faults, and other features for observation... You can explore the map in USGS Map-a-Planet (which seems to have been redesigned a bit), or download the full resolution version at 500 m/pixel here. That page also has some interesting info on the map's precision: QUOTE Control Network:
There are 13 total observation sequences from all three MESSENGER flybys included in the control network. The existing Mariner 10 base map provided a ground "truth" for the MESSENGER control network. Select MESSENGER images were tied to the Mariner 10 base at seven different ground truth locations. Using ISIS3 software, 5,301 control points (18,834 measurements) were selected in 886 MDIS narrow-angle camera (NAC) images. Highly specialized bundle block adjustment software was used to minimize image boundary mismatches. The maximum RMS error for the global control is 3.48 pixels. The average RMS error is 0.2 pixels. Pixel density values are in I/F reflectance units. Absolute errors of the MESSENGER bundle adjustment are relative to the base map as reported to be ~25 km [Robinson 1999]. Hun Kal, a small crater defining the longitude system of Mercury, is within ~2.257 km of its predicted position of 20°W longitude. -------------------- My website - My Patreon - @elakdawalla on Twitter - Please support unmannedspaceflight.com by donating here.
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Dec 16 2009, 04:34 AM
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Member Group: Members Posts: 890 Joined: 18-November 08 Member No.: 4489 |
cool i can update my map .
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Apr 4 2010, 03:54 AM
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Member Group: Members Posts: 890 Joined: 18-November 08 Member No.: 4489 |
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Jun 25 2010, 06:29 PM
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Senior Member Group: Members Posts: 1670 Joined: 5-March 05 From: Boulder, CO Member No.: 184 |
Looks like a nice high resolution map there on the USGS site. Perhaps though the "ultimate" map would still have some color information as well as ground based radar data added. Some seams are still there as well - perhaps more of an art vs science consideration? John's version appears to have dealt with this a bit.
-------------------- Steve [ my home page and planetary maps page ]
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Jun 25 2010, 09:48 PM
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Member Group: Members Posts: 890 Joined: 18-November 08 Member No.: 4489 |
scalbers
i do a bit of air brushing to remove seams a link to a screen shot http://celestiamotherlode.net/catalog/imag...n_van_Vliet.jpg http://celestiamotherlode.net/catalog/show...p?addon_id=1069 the third shot on that page is not mine my map but a very,very old hand drawn bump map ( mariner) , that dose NOT line up with the new maps |
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Dec 8 2010, 11:19 AM
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Member Group: Members Posts: 571 Joined: 20-April 05 From: Silesia Member No.: 299 |
Messenger team released yesterday a new mosaic:
http://messenger.jhuapl.edu/gallery/scienc...mp;image_id=396 I prepare desktop wallpaper (1280 x 1024) (image was reduced, sharpened and contrasted). -------------------- Free software for planetary science (including Cassini Image Viewer).
http://members.tripod.com/petermasek/marinerall.html |
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Dec 8 2010, 06:05 PM
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Member Group: Members Posts: 154 Joined: 21-April 05 From: Rochester, New York, USA Member No.: 336 |
Google Mercury coming soon?
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Dec 9 2010, 12:03 AM
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Merciless Robot Group: Admin Posts: 8789 Joined: 8-December 05 From: Los Angeles Member No.: 602 |
VERY nice desktop, Peter, just put it up! Thank you!
-------------------- A few will take this knowledge and use this power of a dream realized as a force for change, an impetus for further discovery to make less ancient dreams real.
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Feb 9 2011, 06:26 PM
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#9
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Member Group: Members Posts: 571 Joined: 20-April 05 From: Silesia Member No.: 299 |
-------------------- Free software for planetary science (including Cassini Image Viewer).
http://members.tripod.com/petermasek/marinerall.html |
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Feb 9 2011, 07:20 PM
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Member Group: Members Posts: 555 Joined: 27-September 10 Member No.: 5458 |
I've always been mystified at how similar Mercury looks to our own moon. Out of curiosity, have any papers ever discussed the possibility of Mercury being a former moon of Venus, or would that be an impossibility in some way?
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Feb 9 2011, 07:39 PM
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Senior Member Group: Members Posts: 3516 Joined: 4-November 05 From: North Wales Member No.: 542 |
Mercury and our Moon are very different on the inside. Mercury has a much higher density, in fact it's denser than Venus despite being much smaller.
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Feb 9 2011, 07:51 PM
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Member Group: Members Posts: 555 Joined: 27-September 10 Member No.: 5458 |
Mercury is almost as dense as the Earth, despite being much smaller as well, yes. I just thought it was odd that I had never read anywhere about the possibility of Mercury being a former moon of Venus, a result of a giant impact similar to Earth, even from crackpot journalists.
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Feb 9 2011, 09:01 PM
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#13
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Senior Member Group: Members Posts: 1598 Joined: 14-October 05 From: Vermont Member No.: 530 |
Mercury is almost as dense as the Earth, despite being much smaller as well, yes. I just thought it was odd that I had never read anywhere about the possibility of Mercury being a former moon of Venus, a result of a giant impact similar to Earth, even from crackpot journalists. I'm going to speculate that by the time we knew what Mercury looked like, astronomers had certain ideas about how the planets formed and ended up in their orbits. At least enough to state with certainty that Velikovsky was full of crap. |
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Feb 10 2011, 02:00 PM
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Junior Member Group: Members Posts: 55 Joined: 6-March 10 From: Cincinnati, OH Member No.: 5246 |
I've always been mystified at how similar Mercury looks to our own moon. Out of curiosity, have any papers ever discussed the possibility of Mercury being a former moon of Venus, or would that be an impossibility in some way? The answer to the first part of your question is yes: Van Flandern, T.C.; Harrington, R.S. (1976) A Dynamical Investigation of the Conjecture that Mercury Is an Escaped Satellite of Venus. Icarus, 28(435). The tentative answer to the second part is no: the authors concluded that the hypothesis is viable because it cannot be discounted based on Mercury's current orbital dynamics. Tom |
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Feb 10 2011, 02:29 PM
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Member Group: Members Posts: 555 Joined: 27-September 10 Member No.: 5458 |
Thanks Tom, I really appreciate that. I scoured the net for probably 2 hours straight last night, baffled that I was coming up empty handed.
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