Stunning Mercury Images Look Like A Marble In Space

This Giant Floating Marble Is Actually A Planet

A new high-resolution image of the planet Mercury has been released by NASA and we think it's fair to say it's one of the finest images NASA has unveiled in recent months.

The image is -- as is often the case -- a composite of thousands of tiny pictures taken by the MESSENGER probe as it orbited the planet.

It's also important to note that this is not how the planet would look to the human eye, instead it has been treated to show the "chemical, mineralogical, and physical differences".

The tiny planet is the closest to the Sun, so only has a solar year that lasts 88 days, it's also simultaneously one of the hottest and coldest planets in the Solar System reaching temperatures as low as - 173 degrees at night to over 400 degrees during the day.

Made up of over 70 per cent metal, Mercury has fascinated scientists because of its close proximity to the Sun.

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