NASA Messenger: Mercury mosaic image

The planet Mercury is pictured in this mosaic photograph compiled with images taken from the spacecraft Messenger. 

After its first Mercury solar day (176 Earth days) in orbit, Messenger has nearly completed two of its main global imaging campaigns: a monochrome map at 250m/pixel and an eight-colour, 1-km/pixel map.

Apart from small gaps, which will be filled in during the next solar day, these global maps now provide uniform lighting conditions ideal for assessing the form of Mercury's surface features as well as the colour and compositional variations across the planet.

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