Stunning New Mercury Pictures

It seems that everyone is talking about Mercury right now. The small rocky planet closest to the sun is ready for its close-up.

This week, that close-up was provided by the mission MESSENGER. On October 6, 2008, at roughly 4:40 AM ET, MESSENGER flew by Mercury for the second time this year. The stunning images taken during this second sweep are availble in our MESSENGER Gallery October 2008.

MESSENGER's first fly-by resulted in another set of incredible pictures. In January, we documented this visit with our MESSENGER - Mission to Mercury Pictures Gallery.

Check out both of these Picture Galleries:

• MESSENGER - Mission to Mercury Pictures Gallery - January, 2008
• MESSENGER Gallery October 2008 - October, 2008

Image Credit: NASA/Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory/Carnegie Institution of Washington