Combining images from the recent Messenger spacecraft and Mariner 10 from the 1970’s, the first global map of Mercury was released Tuesday.
The U.S. Geological Survey built the map from 917 images of variable resolution and lighting conditions, but sophisticated software was able to match up planetary features from different images to create the near seamless mosaic.
The new map was released at a meeting of the American Geophysical Union.
Messenger completed the last of its three flybys of the planet on September 29th. The release of the map marks a new phase of the mission for the spacecraft, which will now orbit the sun’s innermost planet for a year.
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