In Pictures: Exploring Mars with Curiosity
In Pictures: Meteors
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In Pictures: Space Photos of the Day: Asteroids
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In Pictures: Space photos of the day: The Moon
In Pictures: Space photos of the day: A Blue Planet
This image of Mercury, captured early in the morning on March 29, 2011, is the first ever obtained from a spacecraft in orbit about the Solar System's innermost planet. The dominant rayed crater is Debussy. NASA/AP
The transit or passage of a planet across the face of the Sun is a relatively rare occurrence. There are approximately 13 transits of Mercury each century. This one occurred on Nov. 8, 2006.
This NASA image released in 2008 shows an enhanced image of Mercury from the Messenger space probe's flyby of the planet. NASA said the Messenger space probe successfully entered Mercury's orbit Thursday night. This marks the first time a spacecraft has entered orbit of our solar system's innermost planet.
Mercury (black dot in center left) passes across the Sun's disk in 2006.
The Planet Mercury is photographed by Mariner 10 in 1974.
This 2003 NASA photo is a composite image from the Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO) showing the planet Mercury in transit. For five hours, skywatchers on five continents were able to view the planet as it passed directly between the Earth and the Sun.
The handout photo made available by EADS Astrium in 2008 shows a computer simulation of satellite 'BepiColombo' orbiting Mercury. The satellite is scheduled to be launched in 2013 and shall reach its destination in 2019. Among other scientific goals, scientists want to obtain high resolution photos of the surface of the sun's nearest planet.
Mariner 10's first image of Mercury acquired on March 24, 1974 is seen here. During its flight, Mariner 10's trajectory brought it behind the lighted hemisphere of Mercury, where this image was taken, in order to acquire important measurements with other instruments.
Updated calibration and subsequent mosaicing have led to substantial improvements in the Mariner 10 color image data. This color composite was formed to highlight differences in opaque minerals (such as ilmenite), iron content, and soil maturity.
The Image Processing Lab at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory produced this photomosaic of Mercury's southern hemisphere using computer software and techniques developed for use in processing planetary data in the 1970s.
Mercury transits in front of the sun in 2003.
Mercury is the closest planet to our sun and has a diameter less than half the size of Earth's. This photo was taken by NASA's Mariner 10 in 1974.
This image from the MESSENGER spacecraft that flew by Mercury in October 2008 shows the smooth insides of Mercury's craters.
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NASA's Messenger probe enabled researchers to find unexpected materials frozen in Mercury's north pole. Scientists think the materials arrived via comets or asteroids that hit millions of years ago.
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