“‘This is the last of the classical planets, the planets known to the astronomers of Egypt and Greece and Rome and the Far East,’ said Sean C. Solomon of the Carnegie Institution of Washington, the mission’s principal investigator. ‘It’s an object that has captivated the imagination and the attention of astronomers for millennia.’ But never before has science had such a good front-row seat. ‘We’re there now,’ Dr. Solomon said.” NASA’s Messenger sends back some photos of its fly by Mercury, a planet we haven’t visited since Mariner 10 in 1975.