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Friday May 1, 2009
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 NASA's MESSENGER space craft is beaming back pictures of the planet Mercury that reveal a side of the planet we've never seen before--including a huge impact crater and remnants of volcanic activity, according to Space.com.
The craft is the first to visit Mercury in more than 30 years, and is going a long way toward demonstrating that the diminutive planet isn't as much like our own moon as we thought it was.
Among the craft's findings are that Mercury's crust was largely
created through volcanism, as past eruptions spewed lava which later dried, the report said. The impact crater, meanwhile, is more than 430 miles in diameter--roughly the distance from Boston to D.C., as the article points out--and was probably formed about 3.9 billion years ago in the early stages of our solar system.
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May 1, 2009 4:15 PM
I suggest you Google "Caloris Basin", an even larger crater on Mercury discovered by Mariner 10...30 years ago. The Caloris object left a crater over 1500km across, dwarfing this one.
May 2, 2009 1:20 PM
Just to set the record straight:
Lava does not "dry," any more than molten metal does! It cools and hardens.
May 3, 2009 11:53 PM
When was the last time you visited Mercury.
May 4, 2009 7:30 AM
somebody said lava does not dry any more than melted metal drys; it cools and hardens! who the heck cares!! whats the f'ing difference!!! I guess glue doesnt dry. I guess nail polish does not dry!!! it means the same f'ing thing!!!!!! SEMANTICS!!! TRYING TO correct somebody's terminology when the general public already refers to lava as drying. you could possibly argue that drying is merely a liquid becoming a solid!! drying takes two forms: one is the chemical separation of a liquid evaporating from a solid: or a liquid becoming a solid with the transference of heat, but not the tranference of actual chemical matter, as in water evaporating.
May 4, 2009 7:34 AM
the economy sucks on Mercury!!
May 4, 2009 8:42 PM
NASA needs 'news' to justify more $$$ Oh well...