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NASA Messenger to study planet Mercury

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NASA Administrator Charles Bolden, left, shakes hands with Eric Finnegan, MESSENGER Mission Systems Engineer, right, as John Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory Director Dr. Ralph Semmel, second from right, and Ed Weiler, Associate Administrator for the Science Mission Directorate at NASA look on. The congratulations came after the spacecraft successfully inserted itself in Mercury's orbit, Thursday, March 17, 2011. MESSENGER, the first spacecraft to orbit Mercury, is carrying seven science instruments and is fortified against the blistering environs near the sun. The orbit insertion will place the spacecraft into a 12-hour orbit about Mercury with a 200 124 mile minimum altitude. MESSENGER will be 28.67 million miles from the sun and 96.35 million miles from Earth.

NASA/Paul E. Alers

NASA Administrator Charles Bolden, left, shakes hands with Eric Finnegan, MESSENGER Mission Systems Engineer, right, as John Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory Director Dr. Ralph Semmel, second from right, and Ed Weiler, Associate Administrator for the Science Mission Directorate at NASA look on. The congratulations came after the spacecraft successfully inserted itself in Mercury's orbit, Thursday, March 17, 2011.

MESSENGER, the first spacecraft to orbit Mercury, is carrying seven science instruments and is fortified against the blistering environs near the sun. The orbit insertion will place the spacecraft into a 12-hour orbit about Mercury with a 200 124 mile minimum altitude.

MESSENGER will be 28.67 million miles from the sun and 96.35 million miles from Earth.

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  • NASA Administrator Charles Bolden, left, shakes hands with Eric Finnegan, MESSENGER Mission Systems Engineer, right, as John Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory Director Dr. Ralph Semmel, second from right, and Ed Weiler, Associate Administrator for the Science Mission Directorate at NASA look on. The congratulations came after the spacecraft successfully inserted itself in Mercury's orbit, Thursday, March 17, 2011. MESSENGER, the first spacecraft to orbit Mercury, is carrying seven science instruments and is fortified against the blistering environs near the sun. The orbit insertion will place the spacecraft into a 12-hour orbit about Mercury with a 200 124 mile minimum altitude. MESSENGER will be 28.67 million miles from the sun and 96.35 million miles from Earth.
  • This image provided by NASA, shows a image NASA’s Messenger probe made when it flew by Mercury in September 2009. It's a close-up of its pockmarked southern hemisphere, an area that had never been seen before. Messenger will enter into Mercury’s orbit on March 17, 2011. Earth is about to get better acquainted with its oddball planetary cousin.
  • This image provided by NASA, shows the NASA Messenger probe being tested at the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Lab in Laurel, Md., before the probe was launched on Aug. 3, 2004.
  • This image released by NASA shows an enhanced photo image of Mercury from its Messenger probe’s 2008 flyby of the planet. NASA says it was a taste of pictures likely to come after March 17, 2011, when the probe enters Mercury’s orbit. This photo shows the eastern part of the smallest and closest planet in our solar system. The colors in this picture are different than what would be seen with the naked eye, but show information about the different rock types and subtle color variations on the oddball planet. The bright yellow part is the Caloris impact basin, which is the site of one of the biggest in the solar system.
  • An artist's concept shows the MESSENGER spacecraft in orbit around Mercury.

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