Mercury put on its best show of the year for the northern hemisphere in late April and early May 2008. This photo was taken when the crescent moon accompanied mercury in the evening sky on May 6, 2008. Mercury's surface is covered with craters, and it might appear to be much like our moon. However, mercury has a huge iron core that reaches 75 percent of the way from the center of the planet to the planet's surface. And Mercury has a global magnetic field, like earth. Mercury has scarpes that form winding cliffs a mile high and hundreds of miles long. Recently, the MESSENGER space probe flew past mercury and returned images of areas of the planet that have never been seen before.
This image was taken with a Canon EOS Digital Rebel camera mounted on a tripod with an 18-55mm zoom lens.
May 6, 2008
Image by Sid Leach
Scottsdale, Arizona
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