See up-close photos of the planet Mercury shot by NASA's Messenger on October 6, 2008.
The BBC reports that some 1,200 images were taken, many of regions never before been seen up close by a probe. Mercury also gave Messenger the gravity push it needed to get on to the right path so it can go into orbit in March 2011, which will make it the first spacecraft ever to orbit the innermost planet in our solar system.
What does Jupiter look like? Click here for some up-close photos shot by the Hubble Space Telescope.
Fun facts about Mercury you may not have known:
--It's the closest planet to the sun.
--It's the smallest and densest planet in the solar system.
--It's about one-third the size of Earth.
--It's best known feature is the Caloris basin.
--A mammoth iron core takes up more than 60 percent of Mercury's mass.
--Surface temperatures range between 425C and -180C.
--It's the only inner planet besides Earth with global magnetic field.
