Astronomy Picture of the Day - Earth and Moon from MESSENGER

Posted on | September 1, 2010 | No Comments |

From the Latest News section of the September 1, 2010 Useful Info Nation homepage:

Astronomy Picture of the Day

Today's awesomeimage is what the Earth and Moon look like from Mercury.

What does Earth look like from the planet Mercury? The robotic spacecraft MESSENGER found out as it looked toward the Earth during its closest approach to the Sun about three months ago. The Earth and Moon are visible as the double spot on the lower left of the above image. Now MESSENGER was not at Mercury when it took the above image, but at a location from which the view would be similar.

From Mercury, both the Earth and its comparatively large moon will always appear as small circles of reflected sunlight and will never show a crescent phase. MESSENGER has zipped right by Mercury three times since being launched in 2004, and is scheduled to enter orbit around the innermost planet in March of 2011.

Check out the image here: Astronomy Picture of the Day.

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