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First image of Mercury from orbit released
NASA released an image of the planet Mercury on Tuesday, the first obtained from a spacecraft orbiting the solar system's innermost planet.
The image is the first of many expected to come from the Messenger probe, the first space mission to orbit the planet closest to the sun. The Messenger spacecraft launched on August 3, 2004, and after flybys of Earth, Venus and Mercury, started its historic orbit around Mercury on March 17.
The dominant rayed crater in the upper portion of the image is Debussy, according to NASA. The smaller crater, Matabei, with its dark rays, is visible to the west of Debussy. The bottom portion of the full image, which can be seen here,  is near Mercury's south pole and includes a region of Mercury's surface not previously seen by spacecraft.
Over the next three days, Messenger will acquire 1,185 more images in support of a phase to review spacecraft and instrument performance. The yearlong primary science phase of the mission will begin on April 4, during which it is expected to acquire more than 75,000 images.
The Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory built and operates the Messenger spacecraft and manages the Discovery-class mission for NASA. Messenger stands for MErcury Surface, Space ENvironment, GEochemistry, and Ranging.
@cnnbrk on Twitter
Please tell me Mercury..will not meet Plutos demise... .
What is so wrong with sub-planets, dwarf planets, or planetoids, . Anyways, Pluto is half the size of Mercury and at the very heart of it all.
It already has. I'm PI$$ED at who ever file named the MERCURY JPEG photo. When you left-click to copy it, the file name is ... t1larg.messenger.venus.nasa.jpg ... This is MY day in the SUN not that fluzzy Venus...
Oh no! Don't take pictures of me!
Silly planets, you're nothing but delicious donut holes to me. Keep the eye-candy flowing - God bless NASA and HD!
Find the sounds of the solar system at TranscendentalTones! Beautiful artistic impressions based on the german astrologer Johannes Keppler's observations dating from the 17th century.
Pluto has been depressed since the scientists in earth took away his catagory as a planet. Poor guy.
It's allright Mercury..even if you suffer the same fate as me..You can still orbit the SUN... .
Don't you orbit the sun, too?
Pluto! There you are! BAD DOG
Waaaaaa? Well what aaaaammm I?
Geesh, I thought I'd be stuck in one place for billions of years. Thanks for the heads up Pluto.
Cool. Just...cool.
Everybody always forgets about me. Except for the jokes. Makes me want to fly out of orbit sometimes!
Heh, but where would all the Klingons float around, then?
Got a bad case of asteroids, huh?
And don't any of you guys worry either. If any of them astroroids or meteors come your way, ill take the hit for you. Just like I did for Earth years ago.
Hey, I've taken a few, too!
About that... it is so amazing that Jupiters size and position are perfect to shield earth from the majority of asteroids and similar.
Me too! Remember those pesky dinosaurs?
Thanks, big guy. Are we aligning soon? I miss you.
Leave Venus alone, Jupiter! I'm seeing red already...
Yep, Venus just let me say bye to my girlfriend Saturn.
Venus and Mars are all right tonight...
Saturn is such a show-off with all the rings she wears...
Like.
Can I help it if I'm blessed?
Anybody want to see my red spot?
Leave Europa alone.... All other planets are yours to explore...
There is a huge underwater ocean below the crust of Europa. Good possibility of amphibious creatures living there. That is why the Earth whales, dolphins, etc. sing, squeak, chirp to get their attention.