NASA's Messenger (MErcury Surface, Space ENvironment, GEochemistry, and Ranging) spacecraft will make the first extraterrestrial visit to Mercury in almost 33 years when it zooms by the barren planet on Monday, January 14 at around 11 a.m. PT. Messenger's long-term goal is to orbit Mercury, but that won't happen until 2011 after it makes several orbits of the sun and three close encounters with the planet.
The last man-made visitor to Mercury was Mariner 10 which first flew by the planet in 1974 and made its last approach on March 16, 1975. Mariner 10 was only able to capture images of about half of the planet so scientists are looking forward to seeing the first close-up views of the entire surface. Left is Mariner 10's first image of Mercury in 1974.
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