First images of planet Mercury released

NASA released an image of the planet Mercury on Tuesday, the first obtained from a spacecraft orbiting the solar system’s innermost planet.

The image is the first of many expected to come from the Messenger probe, the first space mission to orbit the planet closest to the sun. The Messenger spacecraft launched on August 3, 2004, and after flybys of Earth, Venus and Mercury, started its historic orbit around Mercury on March 17.