Professor comments on Mercury fly-by

NASA probe, Messenger, has zoomed about 203km above the rocky, crater-scarred surface of Mercury, becoming the first spacecraft since 1975 to fly past the closest planet to the sun. The probe is scheduled to pass Mercury again, using the pull of the planet's gravity to guide it into position to begin a yearlong orbit of the planet in 2011. Mark Robinson, professor in the School of Earth & Space Exploration and a member of the mission's science team, says the closest approach was on the planet's "night side" - the one facing away from the sun.Article source: Daily Telegraph