First published images from Mercury orbit

For the first time, NASA has published images of Mercury taken directly from the planet's orbit.

These are photos sent from the probe Messenger, launched by the US Space Agency (NASA). This ship for the first time in history became an artificial satellite to Mercury on March 18, 2011.

Mercury images are taken from the Messenger ship

Messenger has recorded historical images of Mercury, the first images taken from the orbit of the planet closest to the Sun. In six hours, Messenger sent 363 photos to Earth.

At the time of recording the photos, the Messenger ship is flying on the southern tip of Mercury. The upper part of the photo can see Debussy crater with a diameter of 80 km. The lower part of the photo is the area near the southern end of Mercury - an area that has never been seen before. Images taken with a resolution of 2.7 km / pixel and taken with wide angle of Wae camera.

The Messenger probe was launched in August 2004 and made the journey of 7.8 billion km before reaching Mercury.

The Messenger probe was launched in August 2004 and made the journey of 7.8 billion km before reaching Mercury. Information about the planet is known to be relatively small, almost exclusively through data from the Mariner-10 probe in 2009 and now the Messenger ship. Until recently, Mercury was the only planet that could be seen with the naked eye but no probe was accessible.

The first picture of Messenger ship from Mercury orbit

Illustrative picture of Messenger flying to Mercury

Latest Mercury photos have been sent by Messenger