Please post Your photos of Mercury globes Click to view attachment

First you show us the other half!

Although Mariner 10 made 3 fly by passes of the inner planet, we only came up with this globe

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That side should have the text "Coming in 2011" printed on it

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Baumgardner's composite images of a portion of Mercury's unseen hemisphere would fill a good chunk of that incognitia. They're beautiful:

http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n0005/28mercury/index.html

As a followup to JRehling's post, from the Messenger FAQ page

10. How long will MESSENGER take to gather data on Mercury's entire surface?

Depends on the scientific instrument. MESSENGER will have photographed most of the surface after the three Mercury flybys. It will have flown over every part of Mercury (except a small circular area at each pole, which must be viewed obliquely) after three months in orbit, and the team will have viewed -- in sunlight – the entire planet after six months in orbit. Stereo imaging, as well as our best global models of surface chemistry, internal magnetic field geometry and the planetary gravity field, will come only after the full Earth year in orbit.

Here's another globe view of the now smallest planet of the solar system

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Here is a globe from me.

The main problem with Mercury radar is north-south ambiguity. It is not possible to make a photomosaic unless you are able distinguish a feature's location as there are two of them in a given radar image.

Modern version of a Mercury globe Click to view attachment

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Very true...it can be seen in Mariner-10 shots like this one, a wide angle shot taken from below the south pole near closest approach during the second flyby (and the only such photo taken at anything resembling an angle like this.)

That picture was taken by stepping the filter wheel from the clear channel (I presume) position to the wide-angle position (wide angle was done with a fiber optic bundle to a "parasitic" wide angle lens on top of telephoto lens), then back to the clear channel.

I think, though I may be wrong, that the camera hit the various color filter positions and took a frame at each step in this sequence. I don't know but there might be a little useful color data in random frame overlap from this sequence.

Other color work that's been published (?Robinson's?) is from the approach and fly-out mosaics on Encounter 1.

Additional comment: This is the picture I call the "Moldy Orange" shot. Not a pretty planet.

It is our only good overall view of albedo patterns near the sub-solar point and across the southern hemisphere. The original post-mission mosaics from the narrow angle images show mosaic albedo mis-matches and assorted camera shading problems, or were high-pass filtered and obliterate regional brightness variation. I'm not sure if better full-disc mosaics have been published that reduce mosaic-mottles to below the noise level of this image.

From what I see Baumgardner's composite images show the "unknown" hemisphere to be even more Moon-like with a rayed crater and a large "mare"-like structure. Is it possible that Solar tides have induced lava outflows which formed Mercurian "maria" just like those on the "near" side of the Moon? Did Mariner 10 photograph the "near" (facing Sun) or "far" side of Mercury?

Here's an attempt to project distant Mariner 10 images of Mercury on a global map. Global albedo variations are visible and color was computed from clear, blue and UV filtered images were available. The image posted by tedstryk was included.

The matching of the images is far from perfect, but it looks nice! Also, with proper care, it's possible to extend surface coverage a little.

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Still at Mercury

I managed to reach what I was after, a nice global color view of Mercury, representative of the topography, albedo and contrast. Of course, colors are only aproximate, because there's only clear and blue filter data, but it looks realistic!

Merry Christmas!!!

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Great work! Also, great work on the map.

Here's a link to a Mercator projection of Mercury's surface combining Mariner 10 data & Baumgardner's images.

http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n0005/28mercury/index.html

Radar studies also indicate that the dark area of missing data between the Mariner 10 & Baumgardner coverage contains a huge impact basin.

I wrote a piece for UK magazine Astronomy Now on Baumgardner's images some time ago; fascinating stuff. That rayed crater is perhaps one of Mercury's youngest surface features.

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Mercury isn't locked to the Sun in the same way that the Moon is to the Earth, so it would be surprising if the difference between hemispheres is as striking; the mass imbalance between lunar hemispheres probably helped the Moon achieve its tidal lock.

Mercury has a 3:2 ratio between its day & year, which means that the planet completes three sidereal rotations for every two orbits. Might this argue for relatively uniform mass distribution, and/or could this be a side effect of the planet's liquid core?

Thanks for that link, the maps are amazing and the surface details are so tantilizing. Our maps of Mercury are at about the same stage as our lunar maps circa early 1960's.

It'll be great when MESSENGER finally plugs the last gaps in our knowledge of the first planet!

Remember also C A Cross's maps based on Mariner 10 data, as previously discussed on UMSF!

Bob Shaw

Bob, you made it back! Now I know it's christmas.

Phil

Bob, your return has made this one of the happier Christmases I can remember!

Good to have you back!



-the other Doug