#mariner10

The Mariner 10 space probe was the first spacecraft to use the gravitational pull of a planet to slingshot it further along in space. #FACT

Image credits Mattias Malmer/NASA/JPL

Happy 41st anniversary of #Mariner10's flyby of #Mercury! The photos above are the very FIRST close-up photos of Mercury. Mariner 10 was also the first probe to visit 2 planets as well. The photo on the top right was the very first photo taken of Mercury. During this flyby @nasa took a photo every 42 seconds! The bright white spot on the top left photo is a famous "bright-rayed" crater that is 25 km wide and reflects 25% sunlight fallen on it (little more than our #Moon). Mercury features are almost identical to our Moon except the various cliffs that are 3 km tall and 500 km wide. The largest basin is named "Caloris" (Greek word for hot because it's mostly facing the sun) is a whopping 1300 km across! Mariner took multiple pictures of Caloris and can be seen in the bottom left picture. As you can tell from these photos we've come a long way but we should appreciate our "firsts" as the proceeding missions build off this incredible data. #astronomy #nasa

Venus by NASA on The Commons on Flickr.