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A new image to add to the family photo album! The MESSENGER spacecraft is working its way to enter orbit around Mercury in March of 2011, and while wending its way, took this image of the Earth and Moon, visible in the lower left. When the image was taken in May 2010, MESSENGER was 183 million kilometers (114 million miles) away from Earth. For context, the average separation between the Earth and the Sun is about 150 million kilometers (93 million miles). It’s a thought provoking image (every one of us is in that image!), just like other Earth-Moon photos — Fraser put together a gallery of Earth-Moon images from other worlds, and this one will have to be added. But this image was taken not just for the aesthetics.
This image was taken as part of MESSENGER’s campaign to search for vulcanoids, small rocky objects hypothesized to exist in orbits between Mercury and the Sun. Though no vulcanoids have yet been detected, the MESSENGER spacecraft is in a unique position to look for smaller and fainter vulcanoids than has ever before been possible. MESSENGER’s vulcanoid searches occur near perihelion passages, when the spacecraft’s orbit brings it closest to the Sun. August 17, 2010 was another such perihelion, so if MESSENGER was successful in finding any tiny asteroids lurking close to the Sun, we may hear about it soon.
Source: MESSENGER
Now, that definitely looks like an interesting place to visit!
Something like the Pluto/Charon system, for sure, but bigger and closer to the Sun. The main body has access to plenty of energy, and it seems, free oxygen; it could even have life!
[Insert credulous comments on how NASA drags its boosters and how Obama wrecked the US space program here.]
March 2011!
Great photo. Can you tell us the names of other starts or are Venus and Jupiter visible?