First image from Mercury’s orbit

APL reports: “Early this morning, at 5:20 am EDT, MESSENGER captured this historic image of Mercury. This image is the first ever obtained from a spacecraft in orbit about the Solar System’s innermost planet. Over the subsequent six hours, MESSENGER acquired an additional 363 images before

 downlinking some of the data to Earth. The MESSENGER team is currently looking over the newly returned data, which are still continuing to come down….” 

Wow.  Nice work, MESSENGER team!  This is a historic day!

Women in Planetary Science is proud of our friends and colleagues participating in the MESSENGER mission, including Deputy Project Scientist Louise Prockter, Participating Scientist Catherine Johnson, and postdoc Rachel Klima, who have been interviewed as part of our series featuring 51 women in planetary science.