Named by the Romans after the fleet-footed messenger of the gods, the planet Mercury is closest to the sun. Seen here by NASA's MESSENGER spacecraft on Jan. 14, 2008, this observation was the first of its kind since the planet was glimpsed by Mariner 10 more than three decades ago.
Named by the Romans after the fleet-footed messenger of the gods, the planet Mercury is closest to the sun. Seen here by NASA’s MESSENGER spacecraft on Jan. 14, 2008, this observation was the first of its kind since the planet was glimpsed by Mariner 10 more than three decades ago.
Messenger captured this view of the planet’s rugged, cratered landscape illuminated obliquely by the sun. This image was taken from a distance of approximately 11,000 miles, about 56 minutes before the spacecraft’s closest encounter with Mercury. It shows a region 300 miles across including craters less than a mile wide.Image Credit: NASA/Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory/Carnegie Institution of Washington