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Normally, I try to stick to Io and the Jupiter system on this blog, but occasionally I do pay attention to what else is going on in the unmanned spaceflight community beyond Cassini/the Saturn system and the Jupiter system. Last week, the MESSENGER spacecraft performed its last of three flybys of the planet Mercury before it will go into orbit around the planet in 2011. In response to this flyby, I finally decided to piece together one of the global mosaics from last year's encounter, which covered similar territory... -- The Gish Bar Times
Credit: NASA/JHUAPL/CIW/Jason Perry