MESSENGER
A NASA spacecraft that became the first to orbit Mercury. Launched in 2004, it entered Mercury’s orbit in 2011 and conducted detailed mapping and analysis of the planet’s surface, atmosphere, and magnetic field before its controlled crash in 2015.
Source: nasa.gov
APODs including "MESSENGER"
Two Views of Earth
23/07/2013
In a cross-Solar System interplanetary first, our Earth was photographed during the same day from both Mercury and Saturn. Pictured on the left, Earth is the pale blue dot just below the rings of Saturn, as captured by the robotic Cassini spacecraft now orbiting the gas giant. Pictured on the right, the Earth-Moon system is seen against a dark background, as captured by the robotic MESSENGER spacecraft now orbiting Mercury. In the MESSENGER image, the Earth (left) and Moon (right) shine brightly with reflected sunlight. MESSENGER took the overexposed image last Friday as part of a search for small natural satellites of the innermost planet, moons that would be expected to be quite dim. During this same day, humans across planet Earth snapped many of their own pictures of Saturn.