The first photos from Mercury vehicle Messenger

On Wednesday, NASA showed the first pictures of Mercury made his Messenger spacecraft after its release on March 17th orbit of the planet.

9 phot and video NY Times, Nasa

The first picture, which is displayed Debussy crater, was adopted on Tuesday morning. Thursday is expected to receive 1,500 photos. More than 75, 000 expected in the next year.





"This is the last of the classical planets, known to astronomers of Egypt, Greece, Rome and the Far East," said Sean C. Solomon of the Carnegie Institution of Washington, principal investigator of the mission. "It is an object that captured the imagination and attention of astronomers for thousands of years».



Mercury was photographed close-up for a long time. But now, when the Messenger went into orbit of Mercury, scientists can get a lot more high-quality images of the planet. On the day side of Mercury can be observed temperature of 800 degrees Fahrenheit, and on the night side drops to minus 300 degrees.



Particularly interesting are the shadows in the craters at the poles of Mercury. They never illuminated by the sun, and some scientists believe that Messenger will find frozen water there.



Messenger is going to spend at least a year to photograph, measure and study of Mercury.



Messenger has arrived at the destination of more than six years after the journey through the solar system.



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Modeling of the device

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