NASA released the first picture taken of Mercury’s surface by the US space agency’s orbiting Messenger craft, reports Agence France-Presse.
According to the report, the Messenger captured the historic image of Mercury at 5:20 a.m. today.
“This image is the first ever obtained from a spacecraft in orbit about the solar system’s innermost planet,” NASA added. The Messenger snapped 362 images more of the planet, which shows an unusual, dark-rayed crater called Debussy, and the planet’s lower part that NASA has never seen before.
NASA’s Messenger craft, which stands for MErcury Surface, Space ENvironment, GEochemistry, and Ranging and launched six years ago, became the first vehicle to orbit Mercury on March 17.
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