The images were obtained by the MESSENGER probe when hovering just 15 kilometers (9 miles) above the surface of Mercury

Mar 17, 2015 12:30 GMT  ·  By

Just yesterday, March 16, scientists at NASA released a series of gorgeously detailed images showing landscapes on Mercury, the smallest and closest to the Sun planet in our Solar System.

The images, obtained by the MESSENGER spacecraft, are available in the gallery below. The reason they are so clear is that, at the time it took them, NASA's probe was hovering merely 15 kilometers (about 9 miles) above Mercury's surface.

In fact, word has it that these pictures showing craters, volcanic vents, depressions and other geological features are the most detailed images of the surface of Mercury scientists have so far had the chance to study.

The MESSENGER mission is nearing its end

NASA's MESSENGER probe, designed and built by scientists at the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory in Maryland, US, left Earth in August 2004. The spacecraft entered the planet's orbit in March 2011 and has been closely exploring it ever since.

The trouble is that, having spent this much time flying around and studying our Solar System and especially Mercury, the spacecraft is now pretty much all out of propellant. Come April 30, the probe will plunge to its doom, marking the end of NASA's MESSENGER mission.

While the probe still had enough propellant to perform such a maneuver, scientists sent it closer than ever before to Mercury's surface, thus making it possible for it to study and image landscapes in this corner of the Solar System in unprecedented detail.

In case anyone was wondering, the images that NASA made available to the general public this past March 16 were taken by the MESSENGER spacecraft as part of this last adventure mission scientists had it embark on before allowing it to deactivate.

As mentioned, the pictures show several geological structures on the surface of Mercury. The most impressive of the bunch reveal shadowed craters that have ice inside them and cracks running along landscapes on this cosmic neighbor of ours.

Of the geological features identified by the MESSENGER probe on Mercury, some appear to the considerably younger than others. This indicates that, rather than be frozen in time, the planet is changing and altering its appearance ever so slightly as the years go by.

“Over the next six weeks, as observations are made at still lower altitudes, we expect that Mercury will give up a few more of its secrets before the books finally close on a mission that has exceeded all expectations,” researcher Sean Solomon said in a statement.

Scientists are nowhere near done exploring Mercury

A couple of years from now, in 2017, the European Space Agency will debut its own Mercury mission, i.e. BepiColumbo. The two probes the European Space Agency will launch as part of this mission are expected to reach their target in January 2024.

Like NASA's MESSENGER spacecraft before them, the Mercury Planetary Orbiter and the Mercury Magnetospheric Orbiter will collect data concerning Mercury's appearance and makeup.

NASA probe delivers detailed images of Mercury's surface (6 Images)

Mercury is the smallest planet in our Solar System
Craters on Mercury are forever shadowed, hold iceImage shows the wall of a volcanic vent
+3more