The observations made by the MESSENGER spacecraft along with the images taken over there, by the digital instruments have taken all the scientists in the world by surprise. The loads of data received from the spacecraft that landed in its orbit around the closest planet to the Sun, has amazed all the people at NASA. The major find of the spacecraft is the difference between the moon and the planet as the previous spacecrafts reported similarity between the moon and mercury. The planet Mercury has huge cliffs that spread across hundreds of miles of the surface.
The planet also has impact craters that are in no way related to the lunar craters. The planet also consists of a completely different magnetosphere which was not reported till now. Another astonishing feature of the Mercury is the presence of a spider like structure in the impact crater. This feature that was never seen before in either Mercury or the Earth’s moon is the formation of troughs originating from the center of the impact trough, which resembles that of the spider. Many observations are needed to find the exact nature of the feature and its relationship with the crater.
The plains found inside the Caloris basin which is an impact crater is found to be more reflective and distinctive than the plains found in the exterior. This is again opposite to the feature of the Moon. The spacecraft has also found the nature of the magnetic field of the Mercury. The magnetic field is quiet most of the time but shows significant changes in pressure within the magnetosphere. The planet also has minerals such as hydrogen, calcium and sodium in its surface.