High-Resolution View from Mercury Flyby 1
Date Acquired: January 14, 2008
Instrument: Narrow Angle Camera (NAC) of the Mercury Dual Imaging System (MDIS)
Scale: The diameter of Mercury is 4880 kilometers (3030 miles)
Of Interest: This high-resolution mosaic of NAC images shows Mercury as it appeared to MESSENGER as the spacecraft departed the planet following the mission's first flyby of Mercury. This mosaic resembles the historic first image transmitted back to Earth after that flyby and shows a portion of the planet never previously seen by spacecraft.
High-Resolution View from Mercury Flyby 2
Date Acquired: October 6, 2008
Instrument: Narrow Angle Camera (NAC) of the Mercury Dual Imaging System (MDIS)
Scale: The diameter of Mercury is 4880 kilometers (3030 miles)
Of Interest: This high-resolution mosaic of NAC images shows Mercury as it appeared to MESSENGER as the spacecraft departed the planet after the mission's second flyby of Mercury. This mosaic resembles one of the first images received back at Earth following that flyby, an image that showed for the first time the spectacular rays of Hokusai crater extending great distances across Mercury's surface.
MESSENGER: MErcury Surface, Space ENvironment, GEochemistry, and Ranging]High-Resolution View from Mercury Flyby 3
Date Acquired: September 29, 2009
Instrument: Narrow Angle Camera (NAC) of the Mercury Dual Imaging System (MDIS)
Scale: The diameter of Mercury is 4880 kilometers (3030 miles)
Of Interest: This high-resolution mosaic of NAC images shows Mercury as it appeared to MESSENGER as the spacecraft approached the planet for the mission's third flyby of Mercury. This mosaic resembles one of the first images received back at Earth following that flyby and shows details of the Rachmaninoff basin and a nearby bright rimless depression that is a candidate site for an explosive volcanic vent.
The MESSENGER mission is on track to again make new discoveries and in 38 days to become the first spacecraft ever to orbit Mercury.
Credit: NASA/Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory/Carnegie Institution of Washington
