On January 14, 2008, NASA NASA’s Messenger spacecraft made its first flyby of the innermost planet in the solar system. The spacecraft has captured images of parts of Mercury's surface that planetary scientists have never seen before, which will allow them to learn more about Mercury's formation and geological history. Mercury has the oldest surface of all the planets, and its history is written on its face: huge impact craters, smooth plains that may be lava fields, and long cliffs that may expose fault lines.
Because Mercury is so close to the sun, getting a spacecraft into orbit around Earth poses special challenges and an unusually high amount of fuel to control the spacecraft's orbit. MESSENGER's flight path includes multiple planetary flybys, which use the planet's gravity to adjust the spacecraft's orbit without fuel. MESSENGER completed its flyby of Earth on August 2, 2005. In exchange for the gravity assistance provided by Earth, MESSENGER sent back a photo postcard of our home planet. South America is at the center of the Earth, tilted to the right. MESSENGER is the first mission to orbit Mercury; previous observations were collected only through flybys during the Mariner 10 mission. Why Mercury? Describe the scientific objectives of the Messenger mission. This messenger gallery offers additional images and animations.
