Photograph courtesy NASA/Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory/Carnegie Institution of Washington
At a distance of 114 million miles (183 million kilometers), Earth and the moon appear as bright dots against a background of stars, as seen in a picture taken by NASA's MESSENGER spacecraft and released August 17.
MESSENGER is currently maneuvering toward a stable orbit around Mercury, the closest planet to the sun. Along the way, the probe has been searching for vulcanoids, small rocky objects theorized to exist in orbits between Mercury and the sun.
No vulcanoids have been detected so far, but MESSENGER will be the first NASA craft to orbit Mercury—putting it in a unique position to look for small, faint objects.
Published August 18, 2010
No hay comentarios:
Publicar un comentario