The Winged Messenger

First Pictures of Mercury Close In
Without the camera melting perhaps 

Seriously now.  This is important so pay heed.  There are very very few times in your life - both past and in the future - when you will see something for the first time that you have heard about your entire life.  You have heard of it - this planet Mercury - just about since 3rd grade when most text books first mention planets but you have never seen a picture of it that was anything other than an artists rendering or a fuzzy blob from an earth telescope. Think about hearing stories and descriptions of your great grandfather and suddenly having a picture found in some attic vault....same difference.

Think about this some.  We didn't have a view of the earth from space until 50 years ago. None.  If you are a "boomer" you saw the first views as an artist rendering probably on Disney or some science fiction movie.  There is a famous picture of the earth taken from the Moon in 1968 and pictures of Mars from a decade or so ago that are significant, the rings of Saturn, the comet hitting Jupiter, a view of Neptune.....all within our lifetime and first time viewing of things long known.

Now we have an idea of Mercury....a first glimpse.

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