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WASHINGTON – For the prototypal time, Earth has a lawful orbiting eye-in-the-sky spying on the solar system's smallest and strangest planet, Mercury.

NASA's satellite called Messenger successfully veered into a pinpoint itinerary weekday night after a 6 1/2-year activate and 4.9 1000000000 miles and hard maneuvering to fend soured the attraction vantage of the sun. It is the ordinal follower in our solar grouping that NASA has orbited, in constituent to the Earth and the moon.

"It was correct on the money," Messenger's honcho engineer, Eric Finnegan, said. Messenger is in itinerary that brings it as near as 120 miles above the planet's surface. "This is as near you crapper mayhap intend to being perfect."

"Everybody was whooping and hollering; we are elated," Finnegan said. "There's a aggregation of work left to be done, but we are there."

Mercury is not exclusive arduous to intend to, but it's has whatever of the most extremes in the solar system. Temperatures there swing wildly by 1,100 degrees. While it gets up to 800 degrees on the follower closest to the sun, it also is so cold and Stygian in whatever craters that the temperatures don't intend above 300 degrees beneath zero. Radar modify shows that there is probable frozen ice in those craters, something Messenger will essay to confirm.

In the 1970s, NASA dispatched a spacecraft, Mariner, whizzing by Mercury, but exclusive got pictures of less than half of the tiny rock. parliamentarian Strom of the University of Arizona was a individual on the Mariner and underway Messenger missions and he said for a while he intellection he wouldn't intend a ordinal peek at the eccentric Mercury.

"I am meet so thrilled it isn't funny," Strom said by telephone transactions after NASA confirmed that Messenger was in orbit. "Thirty-six eld inactivity for this day. It's meet unbelievable."

Strom said he and all his colleagues were nervous as the desk-sized satellite automatically shifted into an egg-shaped orbit, with controllers on Earth unable to change commands because it took octad transactions for signals to movement the roughly 100 meg miles from Mercury to Earth.

"This was not easy. This was a very, rattling arduous move to intend into orbit," Strom told The Associated Press.

A NASA Twitter statement low Messenger's study gave play-by-play accounts as it arrived at the small planet. This "Messenger" "exchanged tweets" with Voyager 2, digit of NASA's oldest and most-distant spacecraft. Voyager 2, launched in 1977 and now at the bounds of the solar system, tweeted good phenomenon and Messenger "answered" with a tweet: "Many thanks! Cold discover there? Kinda hearty where I am."

Messenger, which outlay NASA $446 million, was launched in 2004. Next month it should move transmitting pictures and investigate Mercury's occult attractable earth and extraordinary density.

"This is when the actual assignment begins," Messenger honcho individual Sean king said an distance after Messenger was safely in Mercury's orbit. "We are really ready to learn most digit of Earth's close neighbors for the prototypal time."

For example, king said Mercury, Venus, Earth and Mars bacilliform at the same time, but Mercury "came discover rattling different."

"Mercury is a follower where there are some things feat on," king said.

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Online:

Messenger spacecraft: http://bit.ly/eqUYR8

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