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Wednesday, March 30, 2011

MESSENGER Takes First Picture While in Mercury's Orbit: Many more to come!


The MESSENGER spacecraft captured its first image of Mercury since entering the planet's orbit. The picture was of previously unseen terrain near the small, rocky planet's south pole. The snapshot is part of the "checkout phase" conducted for the spacecraft that'll include its taking around 75,000 images of Mercury's surface. Full operations to study the planet's geology, formation and history are scheduled to begin April 4, 2011.

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