Now that Messenger has flown past mercury and returned it's spectacular image, just how long is it going to be before someone on the interweb tries to claim that NASA has faked this for some reason that will never be properly explained and that it's actually a picture of the Moon from some weird angle?

I hope that this won't happen, but given human nature I'm sure it will...

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We all know those Venusians: Doing their hair in shock waves, smoking electrical coronas, wearing Van Allen belts and resting their tiny elbows on a Geiger counter...

John Sladek, The New Apocrypha, pg 34.

Nice image. It is interesting how the cratering and rays do resemble those of the moon, but, to me, the surface also looks a lot flatter than the moon's too.

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Howling from the Shadows

It must be fun to lead a life completely unburdened by reality. --- JayUtah

You can't reason an irrational person out of an irrational belief. --- Noclevername

Apollo: The History and the Hoax
Enter the World of Athran

the surface also looks a lot flatter than the moon's too.

Slartibartfast hasn't done the fiddly bits yet.

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"Facts are stubborn things." --John Adams
Clavius Moon Base

There's fjords on the moon?

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Measure once. Cut twice. Power tools are fun.

It's where the whalers hang out.

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Gillian

"Now everyone was giving her that kind of look UFOlogists get when they suddenly say, 'Hey, if you shade your eyes you can see it is just a flock of geese after all.'"

"You can't erase icing."

"I can't believe it doesn't work! I found it on the internet, man!"

Sooo....

Mercury...Fjords...Whalers...Whales...Oceans...Fis h...MERCURY! The circle is complete.

You're cracked it all wide open, people. Good going.

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http://informedopposition.blogspot.com
I am among those who think that science has great beauty. A scientist in his laboratory is not only a technician: he is also a child placed before natural phenomena which impress him like a fairy tale. - Marie Curie

And are alleged ex-parrots pining for them?

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"Earth diameter is 7,900 miles, and Moon diameter is 2,160 miles. It takes on average 90 minutes to complete one Earth orbit, so one Moon orbit should take roughly 25 minutes." - Sam "NasaScam" Colby

Bearer of the highly coveted "I found Venus in nine Apollo photos" sweatsocks.

DataCable^2008 A+

Ah, Mercury, messenger of the gods, who will probably suffer a pay cut when the IAU decides it's next in line for demotion to a dwarf planet.

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A person's name, or a mark representing it, as signed personally or by deputy, as in subscribing a letter or other document.

Hardly. Dwarf planets are eligible for all sorts of government subsidies to the radially-challenged.

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Bring back Firefly!

"It is quite clear that Occam's razor does not sharpen in your pyramid." (Nicolas)

"Still, a man hears what he wants to hear and disregards the rest." (Paul Simon)

It could be easily proven that the image does not match any Moon picture. But of course c. theorists are not interested in proofs.

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"As truth is gathered, I rearrange,
Inside out, outside in - Perpetual change." - A British rock band

LOL! As they say in The State of Maine, that war a good 'un!

Mercury may have a problem getting those benefits though, considering all the paperwork involved. Try filling out a couple hundred government forms so close to the Sun. Heck they'd probably disappear faster than CIA waterboarding tapes.

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A person's name, or a mark representing it, as signed personally or by deputy, as in subscribing a letter or other document.

Hey! I don't see you with a Fungineering degree

Thanks for brightening my day!

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Carl Matherly

Offical Battlestar Galactica Apologist

Named Time Magazine's 2006 "Person of the Year"

Thanks. Thanks a lot guys. Now I'm giong to have that tune stuck in my head all day. ...which really is no different from most days. One of my favorite episodes

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I'm like one of those idiot savants...well, except for the savant part.

Theory of Zombie Relativity:
1) Everyone Else is a Zombie relative to You
2) Whether or not it matters is related to the inverse square of the distance between their teeth and your brain
(Quoted from Demigrog)

I have a diploma in Bistromathics. The numbers are awful.

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This is not an idea to be tossed aside lightly - it should be thrown with great force

Sure, but a big perk is the coffee breaks.

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At night the stars put on a show for free (Carole King)

So what? Didn'cha get the memo - the Moon pics are all retouched!

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Far out in the uncharted backwaters of the unfashionable end of the western spiral arm of the Galaxy lies a small unregarded yellow sun. Orbiting this at a distance of roughly ninety-two million miles is an utterly insignificant little blue green planet whose ape-descended life forms are so amazingly primitive that they still think digital watches are a pretty neat idea.

It Must Be A Fake Because Film Would Be Damaged After Going Through The Van Halen Belts. Anyway, Space Is A Vacuum And Rockets Can't Work Because There Is Nothing To Push Against. The German Rocket Scientist Wherner Von Daniken Said It Was Impossible To Go The Moon Because The Rocket Would Need To Be Three Times Bigger Than The Empire State Building And That Can't Even Move An Inch. It Was All Done At Area 51 In The Neverland Desert. So If They Can't Go To The Moon, They Can't Go To Mercury Which Is Twice As Far Away And Near The Sun. The Sheeple Need To Wake Up.
I Saw It On Youtube.

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This is not an idea to be tossed aside lightly - it should be thrown with great force

Dear Abby,

I was reading through a message board the other day, when I came across the following post:

At first, I thought it was all a load of garbage. That is, until the closing line:

Now I just don't know what to believe!

Sincerely,
Confused in Columbus.

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I'm like one of those idiot savants...well, except for the savant part.

Theory of Zombie Relativity:
1) Everyone Else is a Zombie relative to You
2) Whether or not it matters is related to the inverse square of the distance between their teeth and your brain
(Quoted from Demigrog)

Not bad. A very nice lack of paragraphs, though it could have used a few more mispelings and a little less punctuation. But you needed MORE CAPS IF YOU ARE GOING TO TELL THE TRUTH!!!!!!!

And you have to have a bunch of links to your YouTube videos. Make sure that each is at least 3 hours long and the relevant part is at the 2 hour and 27 minute mark.

I do like the idea that if it is too hot on the moon for a camera to take pictures, it has GOT TO BE TOO HOT that close to the sun.

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At night the stars put on a show for free (Carole King)