PDS logoPlanetary Data System
PDS Information
Find a Node - Use these links to navigate to any of the 8 publicly accessible PDS Nodes.

This bar indicates that you are within the PDS enterprise which includes 6 science discipline nodes and 2 support nodes which are overseen by the Project Management Office at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC). Each node is led by an expert in the subject discipline, supported by an advisory group of other practitioners of that discipline, and subject to selection and approval under a regular NASA Research Announcement.
Click here to return to the Photojournal Home Page Click here to view a list of Photojournal Image Galleries Photojournal_inner_header
Latest Images  |  Spacecraft & Technology  |  Animations  |  Space Images App  |  Feedback  |  Photojournal Search  

PIA12212: On Target for Mercury Flyby 3 - Two Weeks To Go!
On Target for Mercury Flyby 3 - Two Weeks To Go!
 Target Name:  Mercury
 Is a satellite of:  Sol (our sun)
 Mission:  MESSENGER 
 Spacecraft:  MESSENGER
 Instrument:  MDIS - Narrow Angle 
MDIS - Wide Angle 
 Product Size:  1100 x 2100 pixels (w x h) 
 Produced By:  Johns Hopkins University/APL 
 Full-Res TIFF:  PIA12212.tif (6.939 MB)
 Full-Res JPEG:  PIA12212.jpg (261.9 kB)  

Click on the image above to download a moderately sized image in JPEG format (possibly reduced in size from original)

Original Caption Released with Image:

Two weeks from today, the MESSENGER spacecraft will pass 228 kilometer (142 miles) above Mercury's surface for the mission's mission's third flyby of the Solar System's innermost planet. The MESSENGER team has been working on the flyby observation plans for months. Three of the highlights for MDIS include:

  • NAC approach mosaic. This mosaic will provide the first close-up images of a portion of Mercury's surface by spacecraft. (That portion of the surface appears as a featureless white strip near the limb of the planet in the top image.)
  • WAC and MASCS targeted observations. Unlike the neatly arranged rows and columns of most MDIS mosaics, for these observations WAC images in 11 color filters will be acquired as MASCS collects high-quality spectral measurements of specific targets of interest. Visit this page to learn more about these targeted observations.
  • NAC departure high-resolution southern hemisphere mosaic. This large 15-column by 13-row mosaic will provide new detail for an area of Mercury's surface in the southern hemisphere and will be complementary to a high-resolution mosaic of the northern hemisphere obtained during Mercury flyby 2

Date Acquired: September 29, 2009
Instrument: Narrow Angle Camera (NAC) and Wide Angle Camera (WAC) of the Mercury
Scale: Mercury's diameter is 4880 kilometers (3030 miles)

These images are from MESSENGER, a NASA Discovery mission to conduct the first orbital study of the innermost planet, Mercury. For information regarding the use of images, see the MESSENGER image use policy.

Image Credit:
NASA/Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory/Carnegie Institution of Washington

Image Addition Date:
2009-09-15