Monday, September 05, 2005
Earth Departure Movie from MESSENGER spacecraft
NASA's MESSENGER spacecraft captured several stunning images of Earth taken with its wide-angle camera during a gravity assist swingby of Earth on Aug. 2, 2005. The images were sequenced into an MPEG movie showing Earth through one complete rotation from the view from MESSENGER as it departed Earth.
The movie starts when MESSENGER was 40,761 miles (65,598 kilometers) above South America on Aug. 2. It ends when the probe was 270,847 miles (435,885 kilometers) away from Earth – farther than the Moon’s orbit - on Aug. 3.
The gravity assist allowed NASA to test several MESSENGER science instruments by observing its home planet. One of them the Mercury Dual Imaging System's wide angle camera which is used to capture these images.
Earth rotation with date and time (5.78 MB). Enjoy!!!
