With just two days until MESSENGER's closest pass by Mercury, the Mercury
Dual Imaging System (MDIS) is acquiring sets of images twice a day. These
images are used for optical navigation purposes, to verify that the
spacecraft is on the desired course. The images also provide the first
glimpse of Mercury by a spacecraft in over 30 years, since the Mariner 10
mission in 1974 and 1975, and hint at the exciting images to come in the
next week. This image was snapped on January 11, 2008, when MESSENGER was
at a distance of about 1.7 million kilometers (1.1 million miles) from
Mercury. The diameter of Mercury is about 4880 kilometers (3030 miles),
and this image has a resolution of about 44 kilometers/pixel (27
miles/pixel).
MESSENGER will pass 200 kilometers (124 miles) above Mercury's surface on
Monday, January 14, 2008, at 19:04:39 UTC (2:04:39 pm EST). Extensive
scientific observations are planned during this historic flyby, including
imaging a large portion of Mercury's surface that has never before been
seen by a spacecraft. These data will be used to address fundamental
questions about Mercury's formation, evolution, and the history of our
solar system.
Image acquired on January 11, 2008, 09:06 UTC.
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.
