The weekly newsletter for Fed2 by ibgames

EARTHDATE: March 20, 2011

Official News page 5


REAL LIFE NEWS: MESSENGER PROBE ORBITS MERCURY

by Hazed

NASA's spacecraft Messenger has become the first probe to go into orbit around Mercury. Having made several fly-bys that generated a wealth of data, it initiated a 14-minute burn on its main thruster early in the morning on Friday, which slowed it down enough that it could be captured by the planet's gravity.

As all Fed players will know, Mercury is the closest planet to the sun and is therefore extremely hot. The probe has to carry a shield to protect it from the full glare of the sun, and when it uses its instruments to look at the planet they have to be guarded against the intense heat coming back from the surface.

Over the next few months, scientists expect lots more information about the planet. Messenger's orbit is highly elliptical - it's an oval rather than a circle - and when it is close to the planet it'll use its seven instruments to gather data. At this point in the orbit it'll be just 200km from the surface. Then it'll move away from the planet and at its further point, 15,000km away, it will be able to cool off, and send its info back to Earth.

You can read more about the Messenger probe here: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-12761025.

There's also a map of what Messenger has shown us of the planet so far, here: http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=mercury-messenger&WT.mc_id=SA_CAT_SPC_20110317.


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