NASA's spacecraft called "Messenger" successfully veered into a pinpoint orbit after a 6 1/2-year trip and 4.9 billion miles and tricky maneuvering to fend off the gravitational pull of the sun. It is the fifth planet in our solar system that NASA has orbited, in addition to the Earth and the moon."Messenger", which cost NASA $446 million, was launched in 2004,is now in orbit that brings it as close as 120 miles above the planet's surface. Mercury has some of the most extremes in the solar system. Temperatures there swing wildly by 1,100 degrees. It also is so cold and dark in some craters that the temperatures don't get above 300 degrees below zero.
In the 1970s, NASA sent a spacecraft called "Mariner", whizzing by Mercury, but only got pictures of less than half of the tiny rock.
Mercury,which had been a mysterious planet in our solar system because of its mysterious magnetic field and unusual density,is about to revealed.
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