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. The MESSENGER mission is on track to again make history 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
For information regarding the use of MESSENGER images, see the image use policy.