The MESSENGER spacecraft snapped a series of images as it approached Venus
on June 5. The planet is enshrouded by a global layer of clouds that
obscures its surface to the MESSENGER Dual Imaging System (MDIS) cameras.
This single frame is part of a color sequence taken to help the MESSENGER
team calibrate the camera in preparation for the spacecraft's first flyby
of Mercury on January 14, 2008. Over the next several months the camera
team will pore over the 614 images taken during this Venus encounter to
ascertain color sensitivity and other optical properties of the
instrument. These tasks address two key goals for the camera at Mercury:
understanding surface color variations and their relation to compositional
variations in the crust, and ensuring accurate cartographic placement of
features on Mercury's surface.
Preliminary analysis of the Venus flyby images indicates that the cameras
are healthy and will be ready for next January's close encounter with
Mercury.
These images are from MESSENGER, a NASA Discovery mission to conduct the
first orbital study of the innermost planet, Mercury. For information
regarding the use of images, see the MESSENGER image use policy.
