Mercury, MESSENGER and Jupiter

Stellarium's View to the West on March 15

On March 18, the MESSENGER spacecraft will end a orbit around the planet Mercury.  MESSENGER was launched in August 2004, so it has had a long journey with one Earth fly-by, two fly-bys of Venus and three of Mercury.   MESSENGER's primary mission will last until March 2012 and it will photograph the surface with a resolution of 250 meters.

Coincidently just five days later Mercury will reach its maximum angular distance from the Sun, so it will appear as an evening star for a while after sunset.   A couple of days earlier, Mercury will pass within a couple degrees on Jupiter on the sky making it even easier to spot.

Over the next few weeks we can look forward to lots of new photos of the surface of Mercury from the first spacecraft to orbit the innermost planet and perhaps some great photos of its conjunction with Jupiter as well.