After years of orbiting Mercury, NASA's Messenger spacecraft will crash into the planet at the end of this month.
Space Exploration
Apr 16, 2015
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As NASA's MESSENGER mission draws to a close, an on-board science instrument that mapped the surface of Mercury is helping the navigation team with the spacecraft's low-altitude passes.
Space Exploration
Apr 14, 2015
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On March 25, the MESSENGER spacecraft completed its 4,000th orbit of Mercury, and the lowest point in its orbit continues to move closer to the planet than ever before. The orbital phase of the MESSENGER mission, which was ...
Space Exploration
Mar 30, 2015
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Sean Solomon, director of Columbia University's Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory, has been leading NASA's MESSENGER mission to Mercury for the last four years. MESSENGER is the first spacecraft to orbit Mercury.
Mar 27, 2015
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MESSENGER will not go gentle into that good night. The mission will end sometime this spring, when the spacecraft runs out of propellant and the force of solar gravity causes it to impact the surface of Mercury. But the team ...
Space Exploration
Mar 19, 2015
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Close by the Sun is Mercury, a practically atmosphere-like world that has a lot of craters. Until NASA's MESSENGER spacecraft arrived there in 2008, we knew very little about the planet—only part of it had been imaged! ...
Space Exploration
Feb 20, 2015
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The MESSENGER Education and Public Outreach (EPO) Team is reminding interested parties that the competition to name five impact craters on Mercury closes on January 15, 2015. The contest, open to everyone except members of ...
Space Exploration
Jan 13, 2015
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It's always good to get a little change of perspective, and with this image we achieve just that: it's a view of Mercury's north pole projected as it might be seen from above a slightly more southerly latitude. Thanks to ...
Space Exploration
Jan 6, 2015
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The MESSENGER spacecraft will soon run literally on fumes. After more than 10 years traveling in space, nearly four of those orbiting Mercury, the spacecraft has expended most of its propellant and was on course to impact ...
Space Exploration
Dec 26, 2014
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The MESSENGER Education and Public Outreach (EPO) Team is launching a competition this week to name five impact craters on Mercury. The contest is open to all Earthlings, except for members of the mission's EPO team. The ...
Space Exploration
Dec 16, 2014
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