Closest planet to the sun, Mercury shines bright with the color base map from our MErcury Surface, Space ENvironment, GEochemistry, and Ranging (MESSENGER) mission.⁣ ⁣ While these colors aren’t what the planet would look like to the human eye, they have been enhanced to show the mineralogical, chemical, and physical differences between the rocks that make up Mercury’s surface. The tan areas are plains formed by highly fluid lavas; young craters appear blue and white using this type of imagery, while the medium and dark blue images are thought to be a rich, dark, opaque mineral.⁣ ⁣ The MESSENGER spacecraft launched in 2004 and its primary mission was to study the geology, magnetic field, and chemical composition of the planet. It was the first ever to orbit the planet Mercury and took thousands of images on its highly elliptical orbit of the planet.⁣ ⁣ Credit: NASA/Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory/Carnegie Institution of Washington⁣ ⁣ #Mercury #NASA #MESSENGER #Space