First Image of Mercury From Orbit

Pretty incredible on some level........Just thought this was interesting and wanted to share........SV

from Wired: Wired Science by Lisa Grossman

First Image of Mercury From Orbit: "

Early Tuesday morning, NASA’s Messenger spacecraft sent home the first image of Mercury ever taken from orbit around the planet.

The picture, taken at 5:20 a.m. EDT on March 29, shows a wide swath of Mercury’s southern hemisphere. The bright crater at the top of the image is called Debussy, and a smaller crater called Matabei lies to Debussy’s west. The shadowed, pockmarked region south of the bright craters includes Mercury’s south pole and slice of terrain that had never been seen up close before.

When Messenger became the first spacecraft ever to orbit Mercury on March 17, it had already mapped 98 percent of the planet’s surface. But those earlier images were snapped as the spacecraft zipped past to adjust its trajectory. Now that Messenger is in orbit, it will have the chance to explore every crater and crevice of the solar system’s smallest planet in detail.

The good stuff is still on its way. The orbiter took 363 more images of the planet’s surface in the six hours after this first image was captured, and is in the process of downlinking them to Earth. These initial images are part of the commissioning phase, to make sure all the instruments are working. The true-science phase of the mission begins April 4. It calls for 75,000 more images before the orbiter’s science goals are complete.

NASA will hold a teleconference at 2 p.m. EDT Wednesday to discuss this first shot of the innermost planet and release more photos. Stay tuned!

Image: NASA/Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory/Carnegie Institution of Washington

See Also:

• Spacecraft Swings Into First Orbit Around Mercury


• NASA’s Messenger Spacecraft Zeroes In on Mercury


• Mercury Flyby Maps New Territory


• This Just in: Mercury More Exciting Than Mars


• First Global Map of Mercury

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To the NCAA - You need Justin Tubbs in the NCAA dunk competition

Justin Tubbs has made the SportsCenter Play of the Day on two occasions this year with 360 dunks and should be included in the NCAA's dunk competition. The first two videos include the two SportsCenter Plays of the Day and the third is footage of Tubbs during an exhibition event at ETSU.

Wagner keeps busy in retirement - Roanoke.com

Wagner keeps busy in retirement - Roanoke.com

Lots of people keep believing that Billy Wagner is coming back simply because he has not submitted his retirement paperwork. I believe this article from the Roanoke Times shows how busy Wagner is keeping himself and that he is happy not reporting to Spring Training this week. Billy Wagner strikes me as a man of his word and as far as he is concerned when he said he was retiring that was good enough for him and should be good enough for everyone else too.

The wind is no longer at Voyager’s back - via Bad Astronomy on Discover Blogs

It is hard to believe something built and launched just two years after my birth will be the first human built device to leave our solar system.

Courtesy of Discover Blogs - Bad Astronomy

The wind is no longer at Voyager’s back | Bad Astronomy: "

Voyager 1 is one of the most successful space missions of all time. Launched in 1977, it visited Jupiter and then Saturn, providing better close-ups of the two planets than had ever been seen before.

But it sailed on, crossing the orbits of both Uranus and Neptune (a sister craft, Voyager 2, actually flew by the two planets). Over all those years, there has been one constant in the Voyager flight: the solar wind blowing past it. This stream of subatomic particles leaves the Sun at hundreds of kilometers per second, much faster than Voyager. But now, after 33 years, that has changed: at 17 billion kilometers (10.6 billion miles) from the Sun, the spacecraft has reached the point where the solar wind has slowed to a stop. Literally, the wind is no longer at Voyager’s back.

There is gas between the stars, which astronomers call the interstellar medium. The solar wind blows out into it, slowing. There is a region, over a billion kilometers thick, where the solar wind plows to a halt, creating a roughly spherical shell around the solar system. That’s called the heliosheath, and it looks like Voyager 1 is now solidly inside it. In fact, it’s been there for four months or so; the scientists measuring the solar wind speed noticed it dropped to 0 back in June, but it took a while to make sure this wasn’t just some local eddy in the flow. It’s not. Voyager 1 now has calm seas ahead.

But the probe is still moving outward at 60,000 kph (38,000 mph). In a few more years it’ll leave the heliosheath behind, and when that happens it will truly be in interstellar space, the vast and nearly empty region between the stars. At that moment it will be the first human device ever to truly leave the solar system and enter the great stretches of the galaxy beyond.

Imagine! It was launched before personal computers were everywhere, before cell phones, before the internet! But it was given a powerful boost by its rocket, and another by the two largest planets in the solar system as it swung by them. And now, in just a few more years, it will have left our nest forever.

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Time for a change

It has been entirely too long since I added anything to this space and today's trade between the Toronto Blue Jays and the Atlanta Braves, that sent Yunel Escobar and JoJo Reyes to the Jays in exchange for Alex Gonzalez and two minor leaguers, is a topic on which I wanted to weigh in and proved to be motivation for me to put some thoughts together for you. Some today have said Escobar is younger and his future is brighter than that of Alex Gonzalez and that the Braves will come to regret having made this trade. They may be correct about the upside potential of Escobar and I hope that Yunel overcomes his struggles at the plate and goes on to have a great career but it was time for a change to be made at shortstop in Atlanta.

The last series the Braves played before the All-Star break made that as clear as it could be to me. Escobar allowed a pop up that he called for to drop in and nearly got Troy Glaus injured when a lollipop throw that he made pulled Glaus off the base and into the path of Jeff Francoeur. These plays showcased the lack of effort that Escobar was playing with in the field and highlighted the frustrations that many within the Braves' organization have had with him over time. The glimpses that I caught of him in the dugout also showed him alone on the bench which indicated to me that his much publicized attitude was beginning to wear thin with the rest of his teammates. It was then that I said Escobar should be benched in favor of Omar Infante at shortstop. This move of course allows Infante to continue to be an all around utility player and fill holes in the lineup where needed and adds a shortstop that is having a good year offensively and has often been sought after in trades for his defensive abilities. His defense may not have the same potential as that of Escobar but it should certainly be as good or better than what Escobar had showed in the field of late.

Regardless of how Escobar performs going forward this is a move that makes the Braves better as a team now as they try to maintain their lead in the NL East. Gonzalez will likely be gone after the 2011 season but Edward Salcedo might be ready to make his move to the majors by the time the 2012 season gets here and there are certainly others in the Braves' farm system that could earn a chance to be the everyday shortstop in Atlanta by 2012.

The future of this trade may also be determined by the minor leaguers that came to the Braves as a part of the deal. Tim Collins a left handed relief pitcher has struck out 73 batters in 43 innings pitched this season. Hitters facing Collins this year at the Double A level have only been able to manage a .174 average while collecting 27 hits in those 43 innings pitched. Tyler Pastornicky is another shortstop that might be added to the mix in years to come. He apparently has some speed and fields his position well.

Time will tell who comes out ahead in this trade but by ridding themselves of a player with whom many in the organization appeared to be frustrated and replacing him with one that should be as good if not better over the remainder of this season as they continue their quest towards a championship, the Braves will have a hard time coming out on the short end of this deal.

A true leadoff hitter could still step up for the Braves

The Atlanta Braves offense has been showing signs of life over the last week or so and things are beginning to look more promising than they did when the Braves were enduring their nine game losing streak. Martin Prado has moved into the leadoff role and has provided more from that spot in the lineup than any other player that has been given that opportunity. While Prado's success in that role is encouraging for the Braves, it would still be nice to see someone that is more of a prototypical leadoff hitter step up and fill that role successfully. If Nate McClouth could turn his season around and prove himself capable of filling that role or if Jordan Schafer returns to Atlanta to fill that role, Martin Prado could return to the second spot in the lineup where I believe his bat could be even better utilized as it was at the beginning of the season.

The case has been made here previously for Heyward hitting second but Prado's success to this point in the season and Heyward's ability to drive in runs has caused me to rethink that position slightly. If someone besides Prado could fill the leadoff spot successfully then Prado should return to the second spot while Heyward could move to the third spot in the lineup. Chipper Jones could then hit fifth serving as protection for Troy Glaus, who could remain in the cleanup spot.Hinske, McCann and Escobar could then fill out the rest of the lineup. That lineup with a successful leadoff hitter seems like it could take the Braves a long this year. Of course this whole theory is reliant on someone besides Prado stepping up to fill the leadoff spot and unless Jordan Schafer makes a strong case for himself over the next several weeks in Gwinnett, it is likely that Prado will be hitting leadoff for a long time to come.

Jason Heyward to start the season in Atlanta

Bobby Cox and the Atlanta Braves today made it official that Jason Heyward would be the opening day right fielder for the Braves. Many had assumed this would be the case since spring training started and Heyward has done nothing to make anyone think differently. His exploits in batting practice, patience at the plate in games and overall maturity have been well documented This blog even made the case for him to hit second in the Braves' lineup. Some however wondered if Heyward's Major League debut would be delayed so that the team could gain extra time before Heyward would be eligible for arbitration. Major League Baseball is certainly as much of as a business as it is a game in this day and age and teams often have to make decisions based on their financial ramifications rather than what may be best for the competitiveness of the team.

Today it was refreshing to see the Braves make a decision based on an individual's performance and potential rather than the financial impact to the team. Atlanta officials believe that the Braves have a chance to compete for the National League East title this year and with that in mind they want to have the twenty-five best players available with them when the season gets underway. Heyward has arrived at the Major League level because the competitiveness of the team meant more to the Braves than the cost of being competitive.