Date Acquired: October 5, 2008
Image Mission Elapsed Time (MET): 131666890
Instrument: Narrow Angle Camera (NAC) of the Mercury Dual Imaging System (MDIS)
Resolution: 14 kilometers/pixel (8.7 miles/pixel)
Scale: Mercury's diameter is 4880 kilometers (3030 miles)
Spacecraft Altitude: 540,000 kilometers (340,000 miles)
Sub-spacecraft Latitude and Longitude: 1.6°N, 133.2°E
Of Interest: Just one day remains until MESSENGER passes 200 kilometers (124 miles) above the surface of Mercury and executes its second flyby of the innermost planet in the Solar System. This image is from the sixth set of optical navigation images, and like
the previous five sets, it confirms that the MESSENGER spacecraft is on course for a successful flyby of Mercury early tomorrow morning.
Credit: NASA/Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory/Carnegie Institution of Washington
For information regarding the use of MESSENGER images, see the image use policy.