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First image of Mercury from orbit released

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Uploaded by on Mar 29, 2011

NASA released an image of the planet Mercury on March 29,2011, the first obtained from a spacecraft orbiting the solar system's innermost planet.

The image is the first of many expected to come from the Messenger probe, the first space mission to orbit the planet closest to the sun. The Messenger spacecraft launched on August 3, 2004, and after flybys of Earth, Venus and Mercury, started its historic orbit around Mercury on March 17.

The dominant rayed crater in the upper portion of the image is Debussy, according to NASA. The smaller crater, Matabei, with its dark rays, is visible to the west of Debussy. The bottom portion of the full image, which can be seen here, is near Mercury's south pole and includes a region of Mercury's surface not previously seen by spacecraft.

Over the next three days, Messenger will acquire 1,185 more images in support of a phase to review spacecraft and instrument performance. The yearlong primary science phase of the mission will begin on April 4, during which it is expected to acquire more than 75,000 images.

For more information on this visit:

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http://messenger.jhuapl.edu/index.php

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Uploader Comments (915NIGHTRIDER915)

  • @_@

    

  • @cervandos Interesting Isn't it?

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All Comments (10)

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  • some really good stuff here

  • how can this be the first image ever released according to nasa on march 29 2011 when this pic has always been available, on wikipedia its there even on my iphone i have an application i downloaded early last year and its the same thing. doh

  • @eLLriDe420 That's no moon...it's a space station.

  • @eLLriDe420 That's NOT the moon!

  • thats the moon/

  • looks like 1901 picture

  • Ground Control for Major Tom, Can i build My little house of the rising sun over there.

  • i wanna put a face on it

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