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mercury-crescent
After one Mercury year (88 Earth days) in orbit, NASA's Messenger spacecraft is getting comfortable around the first rock from the sun.
Since becoming the first spacecraft ever to orbit Mercury on March 17, Messenger (MErcury Surface, Space ENvironment, GEochemistry and Ranging) has sent back more than 20,000 high-resolution images, enough to include Mercury in Google Earth.
The orbiter's seven science instruments are also probing Mercury's chemical composition, topography, magnetic field and energetic particles in the planet's tenuous, ever-shifting atmosphere.
These measurements contain surprises that are sending planetary scientists scrambling for their pencils.
"What we are finding is that in many cases a lot of the original ideas about Mercury are just plain wrong," said planetary scientist Larry Nittler of the Carnegie Institute of Washington in a press conference June 16.
This gallery highlights some of the first science results from the first spacecraft to orbit Mercury.
Above: Crescent Mercury
This image, taken May 24, shows off Mercury's southern hemisphere. Once a week, Messenger takes an edge shot like this one to provide information about Mercury's shape.
Images: NASA/Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory/Carnegie Institution of Washington
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