Messenger y Mariner 10 | ||||
Messenger | Automatic translation | Updated June 01, 2013 | ||
MESSENGER (Mercury Surface, Space Environment, Geochemistry and Ranging) flew Mercury September 29, 2009. The first spacecraft to have visited Mercury was Mariner 10 sent November 3, 1973 by NASA to study Venus. | On Mercury, the surface temperature can reach over 400 ° Celsius and down, at night -170 ° Celsius. Messenger designed to withstand huge temperature fluctuations has a large sun shield and covered with a protective ceramic. Some regions of the planet nearest the sun were unknown until October 6, 2008, when the Messenger spacecraft came brushing Mercury for the second time. In 2009, the spacecraft has completed almost three quarters of its travel 7.8 billion miles to enter orbit around Mercury. The entire trip will include more than 15 trips around the sun. Image: Mercury: an impact basin double ring of approximately 290 kilometers wide. "This double ring basin, seen in detail for the first time, is remarkably well preserved," notes Brett Denevi, a team member of the imaging probe and a researcher at Arizona State University in Tempe. Credit NASA. | |||
Mariner 10 | ||||
Mercury, the planet nearest the sun is hidden in the glare of the sun, it is a difficult target for a terrestrial observer. The first spacecraft to explore Mercury was Mariner 10, which made three flybys of Mercury in 1974 and 1975, revealing approximately 45% of its surface. Mariner 10, the last spacecraft in the Mariner program, was sent by NASA November 3, 1973 to study the planets Venus and Mercury. This is the first spacecraft to be photographed before the overflight Mercury Mercury Messenger probe by January 14, 2008. Mariner 10 took a total of 4165 pictures of Venus to gather important scientific data on its magnetic field, rotation, atmosphere... | The first encounter with Mercury occurred at 703 kilometers altitude, March 29, 1974. Image: A restatement helped reconstruct the mosaic frightening. As the Moon, Mercury's surface shows the scars of ancient impact craters. |