by Kasey Cunningham

Each year Popular Science magazine awards innovative and groundbreaking technology and science as “best” in several categories. Among the Apple OS X Lion, the Ferrari FF, and Transmedics Organ Care System, is the MESSENGER Mission to Mercury, awarded “Best of What’s New 2011” in the Aviation and Science category. A total of three NASA missions were recognized including the Dawn spacecraft and the Mars Science Laboratory, which are managed by JPL.

“The MESSENGER team is honored to receive this recognition from Popular Science,” says Principal Investigator Sean Solomon, of the Carnegie Institution of Washington. “The intensive exploration of the Sun’s nearest planet has been an exhilarating adventure that we are delighted to share with the global public.”

As the first probe to orbit about Mercury, MESSENGER has produced data to help scientists better understand the planet. The MESSENGER mission has just been extended by NASA, allowing for the continued exploration of Mercury.

For more information, check out Popular Science’s “Best of What’s New 2011.”