Space Travel News  
MESSENGER Dances By Matisse

-
by Staff Writers
Baltimore MD (SPX) Jan 24, 2008
As MESSENGER approached Mercury on January 14, 2008, the Narrow Angle Camera (NAC) of the Mercury Dual Imaging System (MDIS) snapped this image of the crater Matisse. Named for the French artist Henri Matisse, the Matisse crater was imaged during the Mariner 10 mission and is about 210 kilometers (130 miles) in diameter.

Matisse crater is in the southern hemisphere and can be seen near the terminator of the planet (the line between the sunlit, day side and the dark, night side) in both the color and single-filter, black-and-white images released previously that show an overview of the entire incoming side of Mercury.

On Mercury, craters are named for people, now deceased, who have made contributions to the humanities, such as artists, musicians, painters, and authors. The International Astronomical Union (IAU) oversees the official process of naming new craters and other new features discovered on bodies throughout the solar system.

Scientists studying and mapping unnamed features can suggest names for consideration by the IAU. The 1,213 images taken by MESSENGER during its first flyby encounter with Mercury cover a large region of Mercury's surface previously unseen by spacecraft, revealing many new craters and other features that will need to be named.

Related Links
MESSENGER Mercury Flyby
Space Tourism, Space Transport and Space Exploration News



Memory Foam Mattress Review
Newsletters :: SpaceDaily :: SpaceWar :: TerraDaily :: Energy Daily
XML Feeds :: Space News :: Earth News :: War News :: Solar Energy News


SAIC Subsidiary Awarded GSA Blanket Purchase Agreement To Support TACAMO Program
McLean VA (SPX) Jan 22, 2008
Science Applications International announced that its subsidiary, Eagan, McAllister Associates (EMA) has won a contract from the Naval Air Systems Command to support the U.S. Navy's E-6B Take Charge and Move Out (TACAMO)/Airborne Command Post (ABNCP) Survivable Mobile Command Center (SMCC) program. This new multiple-award blanket purchase agreement (BPA) contract has a five-year period of performance and a total ceiling value of $23 million.







  • Rocket And Missile Chaos Besets Russia
  • Ion engine to propel spacecraft to Mercury
  • Space tourism firm fined for deaths
  • Ground Broken On Michoud Assembly Facility In New Orleans

  • Antrix Launches Israeli Satellite Using Commercial PSLV Rocket
  • Russia To Launch Two Telecom Satellites On Jan 28 And Feb 10
  • Thuraya-3 Satellite Successfully Launched To Orbit
  • Boosting Capability: Santa Maria Station To Join ESTRACK

  • NASA to televise Columbia remembrance
  • Shuttle Tank Connector Repairs Stretch Boundaries
  • NASA resets Atlantis shuttle launch to February 7
  • US shuttle glitches may delay Hubble mission

  • Japanese astronaut to throw boomerang in space
  • Follow The Launch Of ESA's Columbus Space Laboratory Live
  • SPACEHAB And NASA Cooperating On Space Act Agreement For Use Of Space Station To Process Microgravity Products
  • Space station orbit shifted for shuttle arrival: report

  • Russia Eyes Replacement Spaceport For Baikonur
  • NASA astronauts report good communications
  • Celebration To Unveil SpaceshipTwo And WhiteKnightTwo Models
  • MESSENGER Dances By Matisse

  • China To Boost Civil Industrialization With Xian Base
  • China Set To Launch Manned Space Mission In 2008
  • China Reports Fourteen Potential Astronauts In Training For Three Seats
  • ISRO Saw String Of Successes In 2007

  • Meet Blob The Robot
  • Russian Fuel Flows Into Jules Verne Automated Transfer Vehicle
  • ESA Training Team ATV
  • Honda's ASIMO robot gets smarter

  • HiRISE Camera Details Dynamic Wind Action On Mars
  • Ice Clouds Put Mars In The Shade
  • Scientists examine effects of wind on Mars
  • 2007 WD5 Mars Collision Effectively Ruled Out As Impact Odds Widen To 1 In 10000

  • The content herein, unless otherwise known to be public domain, are Copyright Space.TV Corporation. AFP and UPI Wire Stories are copyright Agence France-Presse and United Press International. ESA Portal Reports are copyright European Space Agency. All NASA sourced material is public domain. Additional copyrights may apply in whole or part to other bona fide parties. Advertising does not imply endorsement, agreement or approval of any opinions, statements or information provided by Space.TV Corp on any Web page published or hosted by Space.TV Corp. Privacy Statement