Akhir 13, 1432 H/March 18, 2011, SPA -- A NASA spacecraft is set to enter the orbit of Mercury later Thursday, and it will circle for one Earth year in an unprecedented study of the planet that is closest to the Sun. The craft, known as MESSENGER, began its journey more than six years ago, traveling though the inner solar system, passing by Earth, Venus and Mercury. It will be the first ever spacecraft to orbit Mercury, NASA said. “The orbit insertion will place the spacecraft into a 12-hour orbit about Mercury with a 200-kilometer (124-mile) minimum altitude,” the U.S. space agency said. MESSENGER will be 46.14 million kilometers (28.67 million miles) from the Sun and 155.06 million kilometers (96.35 million miles) from Earth when it heads into Mercury's orbit, NASA said. The first NASA craft to study Mercury since the Mariner mission more than thirty years ago, MESSENGER has already been able to return a partial map of the planet's crater-filled surface after a handful of flybys.
