Messenger spacecraft Aviation and Space Agency of the United States (NASA) has finally managed to orbit the planet Mercury. Messenger must maneuver in orbit Earth once, Venus twice and Mercury three times in the exploration for 7 years before successfully orbited.
MESSENGER enters Mercury's orbit on Thursday (03/17/2011) night. The plane is now located 193 kilometers from the surface of Mercury.
NASA pleaded not easily approached Mercury because the strong gravitational pull of the sun and high temperature extremes and changed drastically. Change can reach 600 degrees Celsius.
Chief Engineer Eric Finnegan Messenger declared his joy over this success. "There are a lot of work to be done, but (the plane) we were in there," said Finnegan.
Next month, the Messenger is expected to start sending photos of Mercury's surface are recorded and investigated on the mystery of the magnetic field and density of the planet.
Messenger was launched in 2004 and has traveled as far as travel distance of about 7.8 billion kilometers to perform maneuvers that need to slide into Mercury. In 1970, NASA's Mariner had also sent a plane to get there. However, the plane just to get a picture that is less than half of small stones.
"It is not easy (to it). It requires a maneuver that is very, very complicated to get into orbit," said Robert Strom, University of Arizona scientist who is also involved in missions Messenger now.
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