Mickey Mercury or Mercury Mouse?
The space probe Messenger has traveled far closer to the sun without being destroyed than most satellites probably could. Its purpose is to study one of the strangest planets in the solar system, the Sun’s closest neighbor Mercury. Part planet and part comet, Mercury has been a fascinating study for NASA scientists, and Messenger has managed to take over 100,000 images of the strange planet, but no image is stranger than this. NASA’s Messenger satellite has captured an image of Mickey Mouse on the surface of Mercury.
NASA calls the shape an ”accumulation of craters over Mercury’s long geologic history,” but I think we all know differently. Messenger is the first spacecraft to ever orbit the planet closest to the sun, and it had to specially designed to maintain its position on Mercury given the planet’s slow rotation status and the incredible amount of heat the satellite has to endure being so close to the sun.