Today’s Geo Quiz isn’t about any place on the surface of the earth. We’re looking for the smallest planet in the solar system, the one closest to the sun. It’s within sight of the Earth, though it’s not always easy to see. In the Northern Hemisphere, you can catch a glimpse of this planet during the early morning or at twilight.
Last night, a NASA satellite called Messenger fired its main thruster and slowed down to about 1,900 miles per hour. And it maneuvered into an orbit around the planet in question. Not bad for a parallel parking job some 96 million miles away from Earth.
Anchor Lisa Mullins speaks with Sean Solomon, principal investigator for NASA’s Messenger spacecraft mission to the nearest planet to the Sun. That would be Mercury, which is the answer to our quiz today.