MESSENGER Sends Back First View of Mercury

Less than two weeks after the NASA MESSENGER probe became the first spacecraft to orbit Mercury, it managed to send back the first-ever orbital view of the innermost planet in the solar system.

The image depicts a dark landscape, that bears the marks of repeated meteorite and asteroid impacts which scarred its surface over billions of years. Small and large craters alike can be seen dotting the landscape, miles beneath the orbiter.

The MErcury Surface, Space ENvironment, GEochemistry and Ranging (MESSENGER) probe achieved orbital insertion around Mercury on March 17, 2011, after spending more than 6 years en route to the small rocky world.

During its travels, which covered some 4.9 billion miles (7.9 billion kilometers), it carried out six flyby maneuvers – one around Earth, two around Venus and three around Mercury. This helped set in on a correct path for orbital insertion in early 2011.

On March 29, at 5:20 am EDT (0920 GMT), the space probe sent back this image, which is the first-ever photo of Mercury snapped from its orbit. All other available images were taken during flybys.

The most prominent feature in the new view is the Debussy crater, a 53-mile (85-kilometer) wide hole near the Mercurial south pole. The bright rays emanating from the central areas of the crater are most likely ejecta plumes, that were produced as a massive impactor slammed into the planet's surface.

A little to the west is the Matabei crater, which is “only” 15 miles (24 kilometers) in diameter. Experts are familiar with it because of the weird “dark rays” that seem to be emanating from it. Both craters, and all the other impact marks, appear in just one of the 363 photos MESSENGER snapped.

The views were collected as part of a six-hour observation effort, which was carried out so that the spacecraft could image portions of the planet that were never seen before. This also gave mission controllers a chance to see how the scientific instruments aboard the probe are working.

The Applied Physics Laboratory (APL) at the Johns Hopkins University (JHU), in Laurel, Maryland is managing the MESSENGER mission for the American space agency. The new image was posted on the mission's official website, Space reports.

“The Messenger team is currently looking over the newly returned data, which are still continuing to come down,” APL scientists managing the mission said in a statement.

At this point, the primary science mission is expected to begin on April 4. Its most important objective is to map the entire Mercurial surface Experts estimate that it will take about 75,000 images for that to happen.