The MESSENGER probe returned the first images from Mercury orbit.

Total for the first six hours photography «Messenger» was provided to the Earth 363 images of the planet closest to the sun. In the next three days, the probe will make another 1,185 personnel, and for the year that the unit will work in orbit, it must make at least 75,000 images.

The probe, launched in 2004, several times came closer to Venus and Mercury, photographing the surface of planets, but directly from the orbital frames are transmitted for the first time.

«Messenger» entered orbit around Mercury on March 17, becoming the first artificial satellite of the planet. To fulfill the mission for the Exploration of Mercury unit is equipped with dual-mode camera MDIS (Mercury Dual Imaging System) to capture the landscape, the spectrometer to study atmospheric composition MASCS (Mercury Atmospheric and Surface Composition Spectrometer) spectrometer, and energetic particles and plasma EPPS (Energetic Particle and Plasma Spectrometer).