Nasa's MESSENGER probe has become the first human probe to orbit mercury. It has traveled over 4.9 billion miles from earth in a remarkable feat of human engineering. MESSENGER which stands for MErcury, Space, Surface, ENvironment, GEochemistry and Ranging, reported back to earth at 9:45 pm EDT and started to transmit data. MESSENGER was launched over six and a half years ago and has used both the earth and the moon to swing and propel itself towards mercury. As it approached mercury it fired it's thrusters in a precise and calculated manner in order to escape the gravity of the sun and begin orbiting mercury. MESSENGER is designed so that one side of it, equipped with a protective radiation and heat shield, always faces the sun, whilst the instruments face the surface of mercury and collect data. MESSENGER has a number of pieces of scientific equipment which includes spectrometers, lasers and a magnetometer. This data collection is due to begin on April 4th, MRHP loves astronomical data and can't wait.
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