Messenger spacecraft departs Mercury

Messenger's Narrow Angle Camera took 288 images of Mercury in the day or so after its closest pass by the planet on 14 January. At the start of the movie, the spacecraft is about 34,000 km from the surface, while at the end it is about 440,000 km away (Courtesy of NASA/JHU APL/CIW)

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Science & Technology

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• mercury
• messenger
• nasa
• flyby
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• newscientist

[deezfatnutz]

@nikeunltd1 that was. btw the messager made finally made it to mars today

[kingnicoli]

what are you, retarded?

[nikeunltd1]

that was the dumbest 15 seconds ever

[ablestmage]

Not if you stay in the horizon. It's gotta go from hot to cold at some moving threshold as Mercury spins.

[Debbie321lopez]

then you will freeze to death?

[ablestmage]

Not if you followed the horizon -- roving base, perhaps ^_^

[Debbie321lopez]

on mercury you will burn to death mate

[chazder5]

:S its a pretty cool place i rekon well be on there in no time lol there will be a space port on the moon by 2050 should be a laugh

[themanyone]

Mercury would be an ideal location for solar energy collectors. You'd just have to beam back some of that energy, or use it to smelt metals and crack hydrogen.

[joezzq]

Wo Hey look i can see my house....noou wait...