Credit: MESSENGER Teams, JHU APL, NASA
The MESSENGER team released this image of the planet Mercury taken during the first flyby on Jan 14th. It shows part of the surface of Mercury which has never been imaged before. It will flyby Mercury again this fall on Oct 6. The third flyby of Mercury will be on Sept. 29, 2009. These manuevers are necessary to decrease the velocity of the spacecraft. On March 18, 2011 the spacecraft will be inserted in orbit around the planet and will be exploration of the surface in detail.
