[meteorite-list] MESSENGER Sends Back First Image of Mercury from Orbit

From: Ron Baalke <baalke_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Wed, 30 Mar 2011 10:40:43 -0700 (PDT)
Message-ID: <201103301740.p2UHehc8023970_at_zagami.jpl.nasa.gov>

http://messenger.jhuapl.edu/news_room/details.php?id=165

MESSENGER Mission News
March 29, 2011

MESSENGER Sends Back First Image of Mercury from Orbit

MESSENGER has delivered its first image
<http://messenger.jhuapl.edu/gallery/sciencePhotos/image.php?gallery_id=2&image_id=432>
since entering orbit about Mercury on March 17. It was taken today at
5:20 am EDT by the Mercury Dual Imaging System as the spacecraft sailed
high above Mercury's south pole, and provides a glimpse of portions of
Mercury's surface not previously seen by spacecraft. The image was
acquired as part of the orbital commissioning phase of the MESSENGER
mission. Continuous global mapping of Mercury will begin on April 4.

"The entire MESSENGER team is thrilled that spacecraft and instrument
checkout has been proceeding according to plan," says MESSENGER
Principal Investigator Sean Solomon, of the Carnegie Institution of
Washington. "The first images from orbit and the first measurements from
MESSENGER's other payload instruments are only the opening trickle of
the flood of new information that we can expect over the coming year.
The orbital exploration of the Solar System's innermost planet has begun."

Several other images will be available Wednesday, March 30, in
conjunction with a media teleconference at 2 p.m. EDT to discuss the
initial orbital images taken from the first spacecraft to orbit Mercury.
Media teleconference participants are:
-- Sean Solomon, MESSENGER principal investigator, Carnegie Institution
of Washington
-- Eric Finnegan, MESSENGER mission systems engineer, Johns Hopkins
University Applied Physics Laboratory, Laurel. Md.

To participate in the teleconference, reporters must contact Dwayne
Brown at dwayne.c.brown at nasa.gov or 202-358-1726 for dial-in
instructions. During the teleconference, MESSENGER information and
images will be available at http://www.nasa.gov/messenger and
http://messenger.jhuapl.edu/news_room/presscon8.html.

Audio of the teleconference will be streamed live on NASA's website at:
http://www.nasa.gov/newsaudio.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
/MESSENGER (MErcury Surface, Space ENvironment, GEochemistry, and
Ranging) is a NASA-sponsored scientific investigation of the planet
Mercury and the first space mission designed to orbit the planet closest
to the Sun. The MESSENGER spacecraft launched on August 3, 2004, and
entered orbit about Mercury on March 17, 2011 (March 18, 2011 UTC), to
begin a yearlong study of its target planet. Dr. Sean C. Solomon, of the
Carnegie Institution of Washington, leads the mission as Principal
Investigator. The Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory
built and operates the MESSENGER spacecraft and manages this
Discovery-class mission for NASA.
Received on Wed 30 Mar 2011 01:40:43 PM PDT