Messenger ship for the first time across Mercury

On January 15, NASA's Aeronautics and Space Agency (NASA) said the Mercury probe called Messenger is currently flying across the planet's smallest planet. Thus, after 33 years since the Mariner 10 exploration mission ended, people are waiting for the latest data on the small planet.

The 1.2-ton Messenger probe is about the size of a car that is currently 200 km away from Mercury at a speed of nearly 26,000 km / hour. From January 15, the Messenger ship began transmitting to Earth about 1,300 photos and other research data. NASA said, by the end of the month, they will publish the latest images.

Messenger ship launched by NASA on August 3, 2004 in Florida state (USA) under Boeing Delta II missile. During the six-and-a-half-year journey, the ship will fly an estimated road section of 7.8 billion kilometers.

Although Mercury is only 91 million kilometers from Earth, however, due to insufficient fuel needed to fly a circuit into this solar system's smallest orbit, Messenger has to make many round flights to take advantage of the force. Attractive of Earth, Venus, Sun.

So far, Messenger has been flying across the Earth once in August 2005, twice as far as Venus on October 2006 and June 2007. In the near future, the ship will fly near Mercury twice on October 6, 2008 and September 29, 2009 before going into the orbit of this planet on March 13, 2011 to begin implementation. mission to explore within 1 year.

Mercury Messenger probe (Photo: NASA)

In one year of flying around Mercury, Messenger was responsible for mapping the surface of the planet made of this heavy metal and searching for signs of water in craters located at the pole that were hidden in the dark , studying. solid rock surface, dilute atmosphere and melting core of Mercury. Messenger is equipped with cameras, spectrophotometers to determine chemical composition, magnetic field meters to detect magnetic fields and altimeter devices to redraw Mercury terrain.

With a flight worth $ 446 million, Messenger is expected by scientists to help them answer many questions about this little-known planet. With the data transmitted by Messenger, the scientists wish to clarify why the planet closest to the Sun has so much mass, about the magnetic and atmospheric systems and the structure of Mercury and copper. In the meantime, Messenger will also display 55% of Mercury's surface image, which has never been observed by previous probes.

Known in 1973, NASA's Mariner 10 probe was launched on Mercury. Mariner 10 flew Mercury three times in 1974, 1975 and recorded 45% of the surface of the small planet.

Surface image of Mercury sent by Nasa's Mesenger ship on January 14, 2008 (Photo: NASA)