Where is MESSENGER?

Today, MESSENGER Flies by Mercury!

Lunar Eclipse, as Viewed by MESSENGER!

MESSENGER Wide-Angle Camera

2014 in MESSENGER Images

MESSENGER Departing Shots

MESSENGER Explores Mercury - In Color

MESSENGER Captures a Shot of Kertész

A Tribute to MESSENGER: Video

Tea Time with MESSENGER

2012 in MESSENGER Images

MESSENGER Encounters the Innermost Planet

MESSENGER Looks out on a Limb

MESSENGER Polar Orbit

2013 in MESSENGER Images

MESSENGER Sees the Previously Unseen!

MESSENGER Observes Arecibo

MESSENGER Discovers Volcanoes on Mercury

MESSENGER Enhanced Coverage of Mercury Surface

MESSENGER and Mercury - Soon to Meet Again!

A Movie of MESSENGER Observations of Mercury Exosphere

MESSENGER puts its Stamp on History

Happy Thanksgiving from the MESSENGER Team!

Ride Along with MESSENGER: Movie 2

First Image of MESSENGER Extended Mission

Outlining MESSENGER New Imaging Coverage

Ride Along with MESSENGER: Movie 1

The Moon as seen by MESSENGER

Up Close with MESSENGER Flight Path. This image from NASA MESSENGER provides a close-up view, at 50 m/pixel, of the surface MESSENGER imaged for the creation of its flyover video.

MESSENGER Flyover Movie. This frame from a movie consists of 214 images acquired by NASA MESSENGER Narrow Angle Camera NAC on June 8, 2014.

A View of MESSENGER Flight Path. This figure highlights the flight path of NASA MESSENGER during its acquisition of images used in its flyover movie.

The day before the MESSENGER spacecraft impacted the surface of Mercury, the best prediction for the location and time of the impact was 54.4° N, 210.1° E, on 30 April 2015 at 19.26:02 UTC, as shown in the featured image of that day. In the last month since impact, MESSENGER engineers have completed the final and most accurate determination of where the MESSENGER spacecraft impacted Mercury's surface. The determination indicates that the spacecraft impacted into a part of Mercury's surface that has a gradual incline with an approximate slope of 8.5°. The final estimate of the impact location is at 54.4398° N, 210.1205° E, and 2438.790 km from the center of Mercury. The final determination of the impact time is 19:26:01.166 UTC on 30 April 2015. Traveling at 3.912 kilometers per second (8,750 miles per hour), the MESSENGER spacecraft is estimated to have created a crater 16 meters (52 feet) in diameter at this location. This new best determination of the impact location will help the next Mercury spacecraft to identify MESSENGER's crater, such as the joint ESA-JAXA BepiColombo mission, scheduled for lauch in 2017 and arrival in Mercury orbit in 2024. Bottom Image Scale: This image is roughly 130 km (81 miles) across. http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA19497

Imaging Plans for MESSENGER Second Mercury Flyby

Exploring Mercury Surface with MESSENGER Color Images

Team to MESSENGER: Send More Images Soon!

Magnetometer Results from MESSENGER Second Mercury Encounter

New MESSENGER Results at LPSC: Caloris Tectonic Map

2008: Looking Back at the Year with MESSENGER Images

MESSENGER Discovers an Unusual Large Basin on Mercury

MESSENGER Gathers Unprecedented Data about Mercury Surface

Capturing Mercury through MESSENGER Dual Cameras

NASA MESSENGER spacecraft continued to speed toward Mercury, preparing for its closest approach to the planet on Monday, January 14, 2008.

Artist impression of NASA MErcury Surface, Space ENvironment, GEochemistry, and Ranging MESSENGER spacecraft in orbit at Mercury.

A depiction of NASA MESSENGER spacecraft is shown viewing the Rachmaninoff basin.

An artist rendering of the MESSENGER spacecraft is shown passing near the crater Hokusai and its extensive system of rays. Both the monochrome and enhanced color views of Mercury were obtained during MESSENGER second Mercury flyby.

I am the MESSENGER, I Speak for the Craters. In the top left part of this image from NASA MESSENGER spacecraft is, a complex crater with hollows present on the crater floor. The hollows appear as bright blue-white features.

With just one day until NASA MESSENGER spacecraft historic flyby of Mercury, MESSENGER has Mercury clearly in its sights. The Narrow Angle Camera, part of the Mercury Dual Imaging System MDIS, took this image on January 12, 2008.

This frame from an animation shows a conceptual sketch of Mercury magnetosphere at the time of NASA MESSENGER spacecraft flyby.

With just two days until NASA MESSENGER spacecraft closest pass by Mercury, the Mercury Dual Imaging System MDIS is acquiring sets of images twice a day.

MESSENGER Explores Interactions between Mercury Magnetosphere and the Solar Wind

Revisiting Some of MESSENGER Early Discoveries and Anticipating More in 2011

The Highest-resolution Image from MESSENGER Second Mercury Flyby

On January 14, 2008, NASA MESSENGER spacecraft observed about half of the hemisphere missed by Mariner 10.

NASA MESSENGER spacecraft Narrow Angle Camera NAC on the Mercury Dual Imaging System MDIS acquired this view of Mercury surface illuminated obliquely from the right by the Sun.

During its flyby of Mercury, on January 14, 2008 NASA MESSENGER spacecraft acquired the first high-resolution spectra of the planet surface in ultraviolet, visible, and near-infrared light.

As NASA MESSENGER neared Mercury on January 14, 2008, the spacecraft Wide Angle Camera on the Mercury Dual Imaging System MDIS took this image of the planet full crescent.

As NASA MESSENGER spacecraft drew closer to Mercury for its historic first flyby, the spacecraft Narrow Angle Camera NAC on the Mercury Dual Imaging System MDIS acquired an image mosaic of the sunlit portion of the planet.

After NASA MESSENGER spacecraft completed its successful flyby of Mercury, the Narrow Angle Camera NAC, part of the Mercury Dual Imaging System MDIS, took these images of the receding planet. This is a frame from an animation.

As NASA MESSENGER spacecraft approached Mercury on Jnuary 14, 2008, the Narrow Angle Camera NAC of the Mercury Dual Imaging System MDIS snapped this image of the crater Matisse.

On January 13, 2008, beginning 30 hours before NASA MESSENGER spacecraft closest approach to Mercury, the Wide Angle Camera, part of the Mercury Dual Imaging System MDIS, began snapping images as it approached the planet.

During NASA MESSENGER spacecraft flyby of Mercury on January 14, 2008, part of the planned sequence of observations included taking images of the same portion of Mercury surface from five different viewing angles.

After acquiring hundreds of high-resolution images during close approach to Venus, NASA MESSENGER turned its wide-angle camera back to the planet and acquired a departure sequence.

As NASA MESSENGER spacecraft sped by Mercury on January 14, 2008, the Narrow Angle Camera NAC of the Mercury Dual Imaging System MDIS captured this shot looking toward Mercury north pole.

After NASA MESSENGER spacecraft completed its successful flyby of Mercury, the Narrow Angle Camera NAC, part of the Mercury Dual Imaging System MDIS, took these images of the receding planet.

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. http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA16364

Shortly following NASA MESSENGER spacecraft closest approach to Mercury on January 14, 2008, the spacecraft Narrow Angle Camera NAC instrument acquired this image as part of a mosaic that covers much of the sunlit portion of the hemisphere.

On January 9, 2008, NASA MESSENGER spacecraft snapped one of its first images of Mercury at a distance of about 2.7 million kilometers 1.7 million miles from the planet.

As NASA MESSENGER approached Mercury on January 14, 2008, the spacecraft Narrow-Angle Camera on the Mercury Dual Imaging System MDIS instrument captured this view of the planet rugged, cratered landscape illuminated obliquely by the Sun.

As comets C/2012 S1 ISON and the well-known short-period comet 2P/Encke both approached their closest distances to the Sun in November, 2013, they also passed close to the MESSENGER spacecraft orbiting the innermost planet Mercury.

This mosaic was assembled using NAC images acquired as the MESSENGER spacecraft approached the planet during the mission second Mercury flyby The Rembrandt impact basin is seen at the center of the mosaic.

On January 14, 2008, at 19:04:39 UTC 2:04:39 pm EST, NASA MESSENGER spacecraft experienced its closest approach to Mercury, passing just 200 kilometers 124 miles above the planet surface.

Artist impression of NASA MErcury Surface, Space ENvironment, GEochemistry, and Ranging MESSENGER spacecraft as it leaves Earth, following its Aug. 3, 2004 launch from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Fla. aboard a Delta II rocket.

These graphics show the current best prediction of the location and time of NASA MESSENGER impact on Mercury surface. These current best estimates are: Date: 30 April 2015 Time: 3:26:02 pm EDT 19:26:02 UTC Latitude: 54.4° N Longitude: 210.1° E. Traveling at 3.91 kilometers per second (over 8,700 miles per hour), the MESSENGER spacecraft will collide with Mercury's surface, creating a crater estimated to be 16 meters (52 feet) in diameter. View this image to learn about the named features and geology of this region on Mercury. Instruments: Mercury Dual Imaging System (MDIS) and Mercury Laser Altimeter (MLA) Top Image Latitude Range: 49°-59° N Top Image Longitude Range: 204°-217° E Topography in Top Image: Exaggerated by a factor of 5.5. Colors in Top Image: Coded by topography. The tallest regions are colored red and are roughly 3 kilometers (1.9 miles) higher than low-lying areas such as the floors of impact craters, colored blue. Scale in Top Image: The large crater on the left side of the image is Janacek, with a diameter of 48 kilometers (30 miles) http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA19443

Just nine minutes after NASA MESSENGER spacecraft passed 200 kilometers 124 miles above the surface of Mercury, its closest distance to the planet during the January 14, 2008, flyby, the Wide Angle Camera WAC snapped this image.

Today, the MESSENGER spacecraft sent its final image. Originally planned to orbit Mercury for one year, the mission exceeded all expectations, lasting for over four years and acquiring extensive datasets with its seven scientific instruments and radio science investigation. This afternoon, the spacecraft succumbed to the pull of solar gravity and impacted Mercury's surface. The image shown here is the last one acquired and transmitted back to Earth by the mission. The image is located within the floor of the 93-kilometer-diameter crater Jokai. The spacecraft struck the planet just north of Shakespeare basin. Date acquired: April 30, 2015 Image Mission Elapsed Time (MET): 72716050 Image ID: 8422953 Instrument: Narrow Angle Camera (NAC) of the Mercury Dual Imaging System (MDIS) Center Latitude: 72.0° Center Longitude: 223.8° E Resolution: 2.1 meters/pixel Scale: This image is about 1 kilometers (0.6 miles) across Incidence Angle: 57.9° Emission Angle: 56.5° Phase Angle: 40.7° http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA19448

You Can Crater on Me. This is a composite image from NASA MESSENGER spacecraft.

Visible in the center of this image is the crater Copland taken by NASA MESSENGER spacecraft.

Waters, Waters Everywhere. Image from NASA MESSENGER spacecraft.

Peak-a-boo Eminescu. Images from NASA MESSENGER spacecraft.

NASA MESSENGER spacecraft snapped a series of images as it approached Venus on June 5. The planet is enshrouded by a global layer of clouds that obscures its surface to the MESSENGER Dual Imaging System MDIS cameras.

NASA MESSENGER Earth flyby on Aug. 2, 2005, not only adjusted the spacecraft path to Mercury - the gravity assist maneuver allowed the spacecraft team to test several MESSENGER science instruments by observing its home planet.

NASA image acquired September 3, 2011 Dominici crater, the very bright crater to the top of this image, exhibits bright rays and contains hollows. This crater lies upon the peak ring of Homer Basin, a very degraded peak ring basin that has been filled by volcanism. This image contains several examples of craters that have excavated materials from depth that are spectrally distinct from the surface volcanic layers, providing windows into the subsurface. MESSENGER scientists are estimating the approximate depths of these spectrally distinct materials by applying knowledge of how impacts excavate material during the cratering process. The 1000, 750, and 430 nm bands of the Wide Angle Camera are displayed in red, green, and blue, respectively. This image was acquired as a high-resolution targeted observation. Targeted observations are images of a small area on Mercury's surface at resolutions much higher than the 250-meter/pixel (820 feet/pixel) morphology base map or the 1-kilometer/pixel (0.6 miles/pixel) color base map. It is not possible to cover all of Mercury's surface at this high resolution during MESSENGER's one-year mission, but several areas of high scientific interest are generally imaged in this mode each week. 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 is scheduled to acquire more than 75,000 images in support of MESSENGER's science goals. Credit: NASA/Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory/Carnegie Institution of Washington <b><a href="http://www.nasa.gov/audience/formedia/features/MP_Photo_Guidelines.html" rel="nofollow">NASA image use policy.</a></b> <b><a href="http://www.nasa.gov/centers/goddard/home/index.html" rel="nofollow">NASA Goddard Space Flight Center</a></b> enables NASA’s mission through four scientific endeavors: Earth Science, Heliophysics, Solar System Exploration, and Astrophysics. Goddard plays a leading role in NASA’s accomplishments by contributing compelling scientific knowledge to advance the Agency’s mission. <b>Follow us on <a href="http://twitter.com/NASA_GoddardPix" rel="nofollow">Twitter</a></b> <b>Like us on <a href="http://www.facebook.com/pages/Greenbelt-MD/NASA-Goddard/395013845897?ref=tsd" rel="nofollow">Facebook</a></b> <b>Find us on <a href="http://instagrid.me/nasagoddard/?vm=grid" rel="nofollow">Instagram</a></b>

The scarp cutting through this crater was imaged as NASA MESSENGER approached the planet during the mission second Mercury flyby.

Raditladi basin, imaged during MESSENGER first Mercury flyby and named in April 2008, is intriguing for several reasons.

This MESSENGER NAC shows a crater at the center of this image contains a large, nearly circular pit crater.

Calcium was detected in the near-Mercury exosphere by NASA MESSENGER spacecraft and has also been observed telescopically from Earth.

Watchers of the Wall. This image from NASA MESSENGER spacecraft features the sharp rim of an unnamed complex crater on Mercury.

This image is a tar cal frame collected about a month before NASA MESSENGER first flyby of Venus.

NASA MESSENGER prepares to perform the Mercury orbit insertion burn in this animated artist concept.

Out of the Basin. These images from NASA MESSENGER MASCS top and MDIS bottom are of Rembrandt, Mercury second largest impact basin.

This is one of the earliest images of Mercury returned by NASA's MESSENGER spacecraft. It was taken in January 2008. http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA19269

Crossing Paths. At the left edge of this color view is a relatively fresh crater as seen by NASA MESSENGER spacecraft.

NASA image acquired October 28, 2011 This stunning, and as of yet unnamed, crater lies within the Caloris basin. Its floor provides another example of the beautiful &quot;hollows&quot; found on Mercury and has an etched appearance similar to that found in the crater Tyagaraja. This image was acquired as a high-resolution targeted observation. Targeted observations are images of a small area on Mercury's surface at resolutions much higher than the 250-meter/pixel (820 feet/pixel) morphology base map or the 1-kilometer/pixel (0.6 miles/pixel) color base map. It is not possible to cover all of Mercury's surface at this high resolution during MESSENGER's one-year mission, but several areas of high scientific interest are generally imaged in this mode each week. 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 is scheduled to acquire more than 75,000 images in support of MESSENGER's science goals. Credit: NASA/Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory/Carnegie Institution of Washington <b><a href="http://www.nasa.gov/audience/formedia/features/MP_Photo_Guidelines.html" rel="nofollow">NASA image use policy.</a></b> <b><a href="http://www.nasa.gov/centers/goddard/home/index.html" rel="nofollow">NASA Goddard Space Flight Center</a></b> enables NASA’s mission through four scientific endeavors: Earth Science, Heliophysics, Solar System Exploration, and Astrophysics. Goddard plays a leading role in NASA’s accomplishments by contributing compelling scientific knowledge to advance the Agency’s mission. <b>Follow us on <a href="http://twitter.com/NASA_GoddardPix" rel="nofollow">Twitter</a></b> <b>Like us on <a href="http://www.facebook.com/pages/Greenbelt-MD/NASA-Goddard/395013845897?ref=tsd" rel="nofollow">Facebook</a></b> <b>Find us on <a href="http://instagrid.me/nasagoddard/?vm=grid" rel="nofollow">Instagram</a></b>

On January 14, 2008, NASA MESSENGER spacecraft Mercury Laser Altimeter MLA became the first instrument to measure the distance between a spacecraft and the surface of Mercury.

NASA Mercury-bound MESSENGER spacecraft captured several stunning images of Earth during a gravity assist swingby of its home planet on Aug. 2, 2005.

This spectacular color mosaic shows the eastern limb of Mercury as seen by NASA MESSENGER as the spacecraft departed the planet following the mission first Mercury flyby in January 2008.

Impact craters and basins on Mercury are named for deceased artists, musicians, painters, and authors who have made outstanding contributions to their fields in this image taken by NASA MESSENGER.

On Oct. 24, 2006, NASA MESSENGER spacecraft came within 2,990 kilometers 1,860 miles of Venus during its second planetary encounter.

NASA Mercury-bound MESSENGER spacecraft captured several stunning images of Earth during a gravity assist swingby of its home planet on Aug. 2, 2005.

During its flyby of Mercury, NASA MESSENGER spacecraft acquired high-resolution images of the planet surface. This image was obtained on January 14, 2008.