Mercury Messenger

More than three years ago, and without the kind of fanfare you would find around a shuttle launched, the MESSENGER spacecraft took off on a decade long mission to map and observe Mercury, the closest planet to our sun. Sometime in 2111, the spacecraft will arrive in orbit around Mercury, but to the get there it's taking the grand scenic tour of the inner solar system. Recently it flew past Mercury in one of its many gravitational games it will play to make the final orbit possible. The science coming back from MESSENGER is nothing short of remarkable, and the real fun is 3 years away. Dr. Phil Plait, a much better writer than I, discusses the latest news coming back from Mercury in his Bad Astronomer Blog.

Bad Astronomy Blog » Spiders on Mercury!

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