NASA's Mercury-orbiting spacecraft, Messenger, is going out with a bang this week, adding a hefty crater to the little planet closest to the sun.
Space Exploration
Apr 29, 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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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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(Phys.org) —On April 20, MESSENGER completed its 3,000th orbit of Mercury and moved closer to the planet than any spacecraft has been before, dropping to an altitude of 199 kilometers (123.7 miles) above the planet's surface.
Space Exploration
Apr 21, 2014
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Mercury was long thought to be lacking volatile compounds that cause explosive volcanism. That view started to change when the MESSENGER spacecraft returned pictures of pyroclastic deposits—the telltale signature of volcanic ...
Space Exploration
Apr 2, 2014
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Just before NASA's MESSENGER spacecraft began sending back stunning pictures of the Earth and the moon from its orbit around Mercury earlier this summer, two University of Alberta scientists were using NASA data to look back ...
Space Exploration
Aug 5, 2013
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(Phys.org) —On March 15, 2013, at 2:54 a.m. EDT, the sun erupted with an Earth-directed coronal mass ejection (CME), a solar phenomenon that can send billions of tons of solar particles into space and can reach Earth one ...
Space Exploration
Mar 15, 2013
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(PhysOrg.com) -- On March 17, the tiny MESSENGER spacecraft completed its primary mission to orbit and observe the planet Mercury for one Earth-year. The bounty of surprises from the mission has completely altered our understanding ...
Space Exploration
Mar 21, 2012
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NASA's MESSENGER spacecraft has discovered strange hollows on the surface of Mercury. Images taken from orbit reveal thousands of peculiar depressions at a variety of longitudes and latitudes, ranging in size from 60 feet ...
Space Exploration
Oct 25, 2011
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NASA scientists pored Wednesday over stunning new images of Mercury as their MESSENGER probe began a year-long mission to map the surface of the solar system's least-understood planet.
Space Exploration
Mar 30, 2011
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