NASA said Tuesday it would release the first picture taken of Mercury's surface by the US space agency's orbiting Messenger craft.
The photo was expected to be issued Tuesday afternoon, and would be followed by several others on Wednesday in conjunction with an expert press conference to discuss the findings, NASA said.
NASA's Messenger craft -- which stands for MErcury Surface, Space ENvironment, GEochemistry, and Ranging -- became the first vehicle to orbit the solar system's innermost planet on March 17.
Messenger was launched more than six years ago, traveling through the inner solar system and embarking on flybys of Earth, Venus and Mercury.
The first NASA craft to study Mercury since the Mariner mission more than three decades ago, Messenger has already been able to return a partial map of the planet's crater-filled surface after just a handful of flybys.