Fact Sheet
Return Visit
The Messenger spacecraft, which compiled this true-color image of the planet Mercury earlier this year, will fly past the planet again on October 6, passing as close as 125 miles (200 km). Like the Moon, the surface of Mercury shows the scars of a cosmic beating over its long history, with many impact craters and related features. Messenger is using these early encounters to achieve the right speed and trajectory to enter orbit around Mercury in 2011. [NASA/JHU/APL]
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