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
For information regarding the use of MESSENGER images, see the image use policy.