Thats some shexy pictures...
I wonder what secrets lie in the dead planets of our system?
Surely we cannot be a product of natural and spontaneous evolution. For that matter, God can also be scratched off the list.

@MasterOfPastures:

Ditto. There must be something on one of these planets that isn't just rock or gas...just...something more, or something surprising.

I suppose i should probably look into it actually, but i often wonder why every other solid planet/moon in the solar system is pockmarked to shit with craters, yet we seem to be remarkably less so. they have moons too. what gives?

Nice picture.

@robot.sonic: Our atmosphere protects us from the vast majority of meteor impacts that other planets and moons experience. Evidence of almost all of the meteorite impacts we do experience is soon hidden by Earth's biosphere.

@whyaduck: [athene.as.arizona.edu] Has some interesting information on the prevalence of craters on Earth compared to Venus.

A magnetic field....Interesting....

"Temperatures during the noon hour: 800 degrees Fahrenheit. And because Mercury rotates on its axis so slowly,that "noon hour" lasts seven Earth days." (Tribune)

@whyaduck:

Well, I feel like I've learnt something today!

Thanks

Wow, it looks like .... the moon. ;-)

@WickedGlee: hahaha..

@masterofpastures: "Surely we cannot be a product of natural and spontaneous evolution. For that matter, God can also be scratched off the list."

So... what, then?

Nice pics!

You can tell that thing has been impacted by some very high energy stuff!

Our sun is an attractive bastard and poor Mercury is the last chance for any collisions before stuff hits the sun itself.

@strider_mt2k: Why, that explains its Mercurial Rivers! Like the pathology of water here on Earth, always etching its way to lower ground until it empties into the oceans, these Mercurial Rivers of super-magnetic energy travel for seemingly-eons along the pathways of yesterday's (and tomorrow's) solar exegons (word?), or is it excretions, mapping a rich pathway for any extra-galactic space travellers attuned to such knowledge (capiche?).

dammit NASA, don't you know my display is 16:9?

Why must you continually frustrate me?

@NONCORNBATANT, well, obviously ancient space alien civilizations are a much more acceptable answer than GOD!

;)

@mattclary: Well, yeah...

I'm more comfortable with that idea then with current ideas based around a god.

@ThatGuyOverThere: Agreed. NASA get with the widescreen program!

@mattclary: Just saw that little wink at the bottom, take no offense from the wording above.

Not offended, I'm not religious at all, but don't see why one flight of fancy is better than another.

I kind of admire atheists, it takes a strong person to admit to themselves they cease to exist when they die.

@selcouth14:

No offense taken. I'm not religious but one flight of fancy is no worse than any other.

I kind of admire atheists, it takes a strong person to admit they cease to exist when they die.

oops, post first post wouldn't show up...

@mattclary: The similarities are there, though strength is not what I take from it so much as comfort in nothingness.

But I also don't want to hijack this thread so back on to Mercury: The article stated that the probe will be orbiting Mercury in 2011 so what is it going to be doing for the next 3 years? Solitaire?

@selcouth14: check out the Messenger mission page on Wikipedia. It's taking a couple of laps in order to slow down enough to enter orbit - this time is just a visit.