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原文:
What’s that under the surface of Mercury? The robotic MESSENGER spacecraft that had been orbiting planet Mercury for the past four years had been transmitting its data back to Earth with radio waves of very precise energy. The planet’s gravity, however, slightly changed this energy when measured on Earth, which enabled the reconstruction of a gravity map of unprecedented precision. Here gravitational anomalies are shown in false-color, superposed on an image of the planet’s cratered surface. Red hues indicate areas of slightly higher gravity, which in turn indicates areas that must have unusually dense matter under the surface. The central area is Caloris Basin, a huge impact feature measuring about 1,500 kilometers across. Last week, after completing its mission and running low on fuel, MESSENGER was purposely crashed onto Mercury’s surface.
中文翻譯:
標題：水星的神秘面紗下有咩？
水星的機械人探測器MESSENGER（美國水星探測衛星）自四年前以來一直圍繞著水星運行，向地球發送精確的數據。水星的重力輕微改變了這些能量，讓我們能夠重建前所未有的重力地圖。在這幅圖中，重力異常用偽彩色顯示，並重疊在滿是隕石坑的水星表面圖片上。紅色區域表示稍微偏高的重力，這推測在表面下可能有異常密度的物質。中央位置是卡洛里斯盆地（Caloris Basin），這是一個直徑約 1,500 公里的巨大撞擊特徵。上周，隨著任務完成和燃料即將耗盡，MESSENGER被故意摔落到水星的表面。
#水星 #MESSENGER #探測宇宙 #外太空 #科學發現 #重力地圖 #卡洛里斯盆地 #宇宙奧秘
來源:NASA每日圖片
