One Small Collection of Images, Many Giant Strides Forward for MESSENGER

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Caption:

This image compilation shows some of the most exciting images taken thus far on the MESSENGER mission. A mural-sized copy hangs next to the MESSENGER Science Operations Center at the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory.

First Row (Left to Right):

Two Days Until MESSENGER's Encounter with Mercury
Mercury Shows Its True Colors
Caloris Basin - in Color!
Mercury as Never Seen Before
"A" Spectacular Rayed Crater
A Big and Brilliant Ray System
Night Falls on Mercury
MESSENGER Sees the Previously Unseen!
The Sun Sets on Rembrandt
Beagle Rupes
Smooth Plains?
Revisiting Rachmaninoff

Second Row (Left to Right):

Hokusai's Molten Past
A Sideways Glance
The Interior of Kuiper
Color Close-Up of Kuiper
Sneak Peek at a Peak
Hollows on the Hills
Complex Craters
Apollodorus and the Pantheon
Blue Degas
Hello Again, Hodgkins!
The Palette of Praxiteles
The Knight in the Panther's Skin

Third Row (Left to Right):

Ms. Pacman Arrives on Mercury
Perspective View of Mercury's Topography
A Lovely View
First Image of MESSENGER's Extended Mission!
Inside Eminescu
Illumination Map of Mercury's South Pole
Oh Amaral!
Ride Along with the NAC
Pit(ch) Black
Uncovering a Dark Past
As Goethe as It Gets
Behold Bartok

Fourth Row (Left to Right):

Say Aah!
Hollows, Hollows, Hollows
Mercury's Kidney
A Wider View
Close-up Shot of To Ngoc Van
The Hills of Caloris
Islands in the Stream
Exploring the Rays of Debussy
The Crater Who Must Not be Named
Have a Gander at Sander
Rockin' Rachmaninoff
Is this Crater Circular?

Background Info:

The MESSENGER spacecraft is the first ever to orbit the planet Mercury, and the spacecraft's seven scientific instruments and radio science investigation are unraveling the history and evolution of the Solar System's innermost planet. Visit the Why Mercury? section of this website to learn more about the key science questions that the MESSENGER mission is addressing. During the one-year primary mission, MDIS acquired 88,746 images and extensive other data sets. MESSENGER is now in a year-long extended mission, during which plans call for the acquisition of more than 80,000 additional images to support MESSENGER's science goals.

These images are from MESSENGER, a NASA Discovery mission to conduct the first orbital study of the innermost planet, Mercury. For information regarding the use of images, see the MESSENGER image use policy .

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