For the first time, a spacecraft successfully entered the orbit of the planet Mercury earlier this month. The robotic explorer known as Messenger was sent by NASA to gather data about Mercury, one of the most hostile planets in our solar system because of its proximity to the sun.
Scientists believe Mercury may hold clues to planetary evolution, providing more insight into how Earth was formed.
Messenger is now in orbit 96 million miles away from Earth and only 29 million miles from the sun. To withstand the extreme heat, the spacecraft is equipped with a ceramic shield to protect the instruments used to view and analyze Mercury's surface. Messenger's chief engineer Eric Finnegan said its orbit is "as close as you can possibly get to being perfect" - precise enough to gather data, but not so close that instruments or the spacecraft itself are at risk of being damaged.
The Messenger mission originally was proposed to NASA more than a decade ago. Throughout the following years, the Messenger team analyzed data, planned and built the spacecraft in preparation for the Mercury mission. Messenger's successful orbit is the result of thousands of hours of intensive research and labor. Principal investigator Sean Solomon told the BBC, "To say the science team is excited ... is a huge understatement. We're really pumped."
-compiled by Haley McKey
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