1. Mars, Mercury, Titan and Vesta

2. Crater Rim on Mars

3. We can Drill on Mars

4. View From the Top

5. Opportunity’s Heat Shield

6. Spirit Makes Tracks

7. Layering on Mars

8. Layered Rocks Up Close

9. Recent Water on Mars?

10. Martian Glacier?

11. Descent of Phoenix

12. Polar Landscape

13. Mercury: We’re B-a-a-ck

14. Mercury’s Rotation
For a Long Time, Astronomers Believed Mercury Was Locked to the Sun
One Side Perpetually Sunlit (And Hot!)
Other Side Perpetually Dark (And Cold!)
In 1965, Radio Observations Showed Mercury’s Night Side Was Warm
Mercury Rotates 3 Times for Every Two Orbits of the Sun

15. Tidal Friction

16. Mercury’s Rotation

17. How Did We Get It So Wrong?
Mercury is Hard to Observe
Not Much to See from Earth
Earth, Mercury and Sun Repeat Same Relative Positions Every 116 Days
116 Days = Two Rotations
For Years, An Astronomer Observing at the Best Times Sees The Same Face!

18. Mercury’s Interior Density = 5.43 (Earth = 5.5)
Much smaller than Earth, less pressure inside
Core about 2/3 of Mercury’s diameter (Earth = ½)
Mega-Impact may have blown away silicate outer part
For a Tiny Planet, Has Strong Magnetic Field (1% o Earth’s)

19. Massive Objects Can Speed Up or Slow Down Less Massive Objects

20. Gravity Assist to Speed Up

21. Gravity Assist to Slow Down

22. Mercury from Mariner 10, 1973

23. Mercury has Craters Not as dense as on Moon
Most of Mercury covered with lava plains (intercrater plains)

24. Mercury has a huge impact basin, the Caloris Basin

25. Chaotic Terrain

26. Fault Scarps

27. Because of Mercury’s locked rotation, it has two “hot poles”

28. And Mercury has the last thing you’d expect to find: ice caps

29. Mercury’s ice seems to be hiding in polar craters

30. Messenger MErcury Surface, Space ENvironment, GEochemistry and Ranging
August 3, MESSENGER Launch
August Earth flyby
October Venus flyby
June Venus flyby
January Mercury flyby
October Mercury flyby
September Mercury flyby
March Orbit of Mercury

32. Visit to Earth

33. Visit to Earth

34. Exciting Venus

35. Venus Flyby

36. We’re B-a-a-ck

38. “Spider” Crater

39. Caloris Basin

40. Volcano on Mercury?

41. Saturn From Cassini

42. Crescent Saturn

43. Behind Saturn

44. Behind Saturn
You Are Here

45. Ripply Rings

46. Making Waves

47. Phoebe

48. Iapetus By Saturn-Shine

49. Iapetus Ridge

50. Titan’s Haze

51. Surface of Titan

52. Aerial View of Titan

53. Surface of Titan

54. Dunes on Titan

55. Lakes on Titan

56. Titan’s Largest Sea

57. Sun Glint off Liquid

58. Boris Smeds: The Hero of Huygens

59. Ceres and Vesta

60. Dawn to Vesta and Ceres First Mission to use ion propulsion
First Mission to main belt asteroids
First Mission to orbit two different bodies

61. Getting There

63. Vesta’s Huge Crater