NASA Spacecraft provides data for first topographic map of Mercury

Scientists have released the first topographical map of the planet Mercury, using data from the NASA spacecraft Messenger.

The high-resolution map provided the first in-depth look at Mercurys entire surface and was compiled after painstaking work by scientists at the US Geological Survey, Arizona State University, Carnegie Institute of Washington, John Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory and NASA.

Cameras from Messenger took a total of 300,000 images of the planet, and 100,000 images were compiled as a composite to make the map.

Messenger spent a total of 1,500 days navigating the planet a total of 4,104 times.

Before the launch of the Messenger spacecraft, very little was known about Mercury. Launched in August 2004, the spacecraft has travelled a total of 4.9 billion miles, taking 15 trips around the sun, as well as flying past Earth once, and Venus twice.