Word: planetful
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...DARKNESS Mercury's crater-pocked surface looks much like that of our moon. Its most prominent feature is the Caloris Basin, an 800-mile (1,300-km)-wide crater probably formed by an asteroid impact when the planet was still young. MESSENGER will provide the first picture of the whole basin, half of which was in darkness when the Mariner 10 probe flew by 30 years...
SOME MERCURY MYSTERIES Is there ice on the surface? Radar imaging has detected what appears to be ice reflections in craters near the planet's poles. The walls of these craters may be so steep that sunlight never reaches their floors, putting them in permanent deep freeze...
MESSENGER isn't due to enter Mercury's orbit until March 2011. But the probe will be busy all along the way, getting a gravity boost from Earth next year, then Venus twice in an ever tightening spiral toward the first planet from...
...KNOW THE HALF OF IT This picture of Mercury is a mosaic of 500 frames taken by Mariner 10, which saw only half the planet up close during its three flybys. The Hubble Space Telescope has not dared to snap some pictures of its own (training its gaze so close to the sun could fry its electronics) MESSENGER will need just 12 hours to complete an orbit of Mercury. With the planet spinning slowly below, it should be able to survey the entire surface within six months...
...Olympic rookies--Shawn Crawford, 26, and Gatlinare favorites in the 200-m dash and join 2000 champion Maurice Greene as possible top-three finishers in the 100 m. Crawford might be the fastest man on the planet, having run this year's best times in both dashes. Unlike the flamboyant Greene, who tattooed GOAT (Greatest of All Time) on his right biceps, Crawford lets his running do the talking...