Alltop.com

The first good look at a planet generally yields surprising new discoveries and the Mercury Surface, Space Environment, Geochemistry and Ranging satellite – or MESSENGER, thanks to the acronym lettersmiths that work at NASA – has been no exception.

Expectations were initially low, ranking the Sun’s sidekick about as interesting as Mr. Moon, but MESSENGER is sending back some truly fascinating information about Mercury. The first point of interest is that six percent of the planet appears to be covered in lava flood plains, meaning it might give us some insight on a similar phase in Earth’s steamy past, and there is also evidence of a “previously unknown geological process” that created mysterious hollows on the planet’s surface (pictured above).

So, suffice it to say, thanks to the information now being garnered by MESSENGER, you can throw out what you learned in grade school about our buddy Mercury, but since it’s likely you were either making fake nails out of Elmer’s glue or shooting spit wads, these planetary revelations shouldn’t be that big of an adjustment.

Full story at NASA via Geekosystem.

Through the eyes of NASA.