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APOD: Earth and Moon from MESSENGER (2010 Sep 01)
Posted: Wed Sep 01, 2010 4:03 am
by APOD Robot
Earth and Moon from MESSENGER
Explanation: What does Earth look like from the planet Mercury? The robotic spacecraft
MESSENGER found out as it looked toward the
Earth during its closest approach to the
Sun about three months ago. The
Earth and Moon are visible as the double spot on the lower left of the
above image. Now MESSENGER was not at Mercury when it took the above image, but at a
location from which the view would be similar. From Mercury, both the
Earth and its
comparatively large moon will always appear as small circles of reflected sunlight and will never show a
crescent phase. MESSENGER has zipped right by
Mercury three
times since being
launched in 2004, and is scheduled to enter orbit around the innermost planet in March of 2011.
[/b]
Re: APOD: Earth and Moon from MESSENGER (2010 Sep 01)
Posted: Wed Sep 01, 2010 4:09 am
by mexhunter
And there are all of us.
Grettings
César
Re: APOD: Earth and Moon from MESSENGER (2010 Sep 01)
Posted: Wed Sep 01, 2010 4:11 am
by john Green
What is the point of light to the far right of the Earth and moon system. Is it Mars?
Re: APOD: Earth and Moon from MESSENGER (2010 Sep 01)
Posted: Wed Sep 01, 2010 4:33 am
by Ann
Earth and Moon, the double planet.
Ann
Re: APOD: Earth and Moon from MESSENGER (2010 Sep 01)
Posted: Wed Sep 01, 2010 4:43 am
by bystander
Re: APOD: Earth and Moon from MESSENGER (2010 Sep 01)
Posted: Wed Sep 01, 2010 4:46 am
by BMAONE23
john Green wrote:What is the point of light to the far right of the Earth and moon system. Is it Mars?
According to the info in an older
apod 060319 the
current position of Mars is behind Earth as seen from Mercury's orbit. Mars would be a likely candidate for the dot to the right of the image and in line with The Earth/Moon system
Re: APOD: Earth and Moon from MESSENGER (2010 Sep 01)
Posted: Wed Sep 01, 2010 5:39 am
by Questioner
Just on this pic, I am curious as to what the 3 streaks of light are on the top right of the large image...
One is quite large and the other 2 smaller.
http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/1009/ea ... er_big.png
Any info would be great.
Re: APOD: Earth and Moon from MESSENGER (2010 Sep 01)
Posted: Wed Sep 01, 2010 6:22 am
by pking51
Hi Robert,
Would the earth / moon pair be visible to the naked eye from this position? Or would one need binoculars or telescope?
Paul
Re: APOD: Earth and Moon from MESSENGER (2010 Sep 01)
Posted: Wed Sep 01, 2010 7:21 am
by Czerno-1
pking51 wrote:
Would the earth / moon pair be visible to the naked eye from this position? Or would one need binoculars or telescope?
A rapid & grossly inaccurate mental calulation yields a Earth-Moon separation of the order of 10 arc minutes as seen from the Sun (or Mercury). So, yes I assume they could be separated by eye.
Re: APOD: Earth and Moon from MESSENGER (2010 Sep 01)
Posted: Wed Sep 01, 2010 10:43 am
by gambit
john Green wrote:What is the point of light to the far right of the Earth and moon system. Is it Mars?
If this was taken 3 months ago there wouldn't have been anything behind us as seen from Mercurys orbit. Saturn and Mars were at a 90 degree angle to the right, and Jupiter would be about the same to the left.
Re: APOD: Earth and Moon from MESSENGER (2010 Sep 01)
Posted: Wed Sep 01, 2010 11:39 am
by rochelimit@hotmail.com
Ann wrote:Earth and Moon, the double planet.
Ann
exactly what I thought!
Re: APOD: Earth and Moon from MESSENGER (2010 Sep 01)
Posted: Wed Sep 01, 2010 12:03 pm
by orin stepanek
Earth and Moon, the double planet.
Ann
And then there's the other double planet
http://www.google.com/images?rlz=1T4GZA ... 66&bih=302
The movie of Messenger zeroing in on Mercury
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=otF2FjpCyZk neat!
![Cool 8-)](./images/smilies/icon_cool.gif)
Re: APOD: Earth and Moon from MESSENGER (2010 Sep 01)
Posted: Wed Sep 01, 2010 12:14 pm
by Redbone
I would've thought that the blue planet would appear a bit blue? It is always amazing how large our moon is compared to the Earth.
Re: APOD: Earth and Moon from MESSENGER (2010 Sep 01)
Posted: Wed Sep 01, 2010 12:15 pm
by owlice
I love this image.
Earth appears a little flattened on the left (non-Moon) side, as though it were a small ball of clay that had been made, put down on a table, and then picked up and positioned for this family portrait, table-side to the left.
I love this image. I was very glad to see it as today's APOD!
Re: APOD: Earth and Moon from MESSENGER (2010 Sep 01)
Posted: Wed Sep 01, 2010 12:45 pm
by garyj
Because not everyone who views EPOD is an astronomer, the commentary should have included something about why the white moon blob appears to be so close to the white earth blob. After all, the moon is about 30 earth diameters away from earth. Perhaps "resolving power" of the camera?
Re: APOD: Earth and Moon from MESSENGER (2010 Sep 01)
Posted: Wed Sep 01, 2010 12:51 pm
by orin stepanek
garyj wrote:Because not everyone who views EPOD is an astronomer, the commentary should have included something about why the white moon blob appears to be so close to the white earth blob. After all, the moon is about 30 earth diameters away from earth. Perhaps "resolving power" of the camera?
As the Moon rotates around the Earth it is either behind the Earth or in front of it; so when the picture was taken; the moon wasn't along side the Earth toward the camera!
Re: APOD: Earth and Moon from MESSENGER (2010 Sep 01)
Posted: Wed Sep 01, 2010 12:56 pm
by planetquinn
Earth in Cancer. I think the bright star to the right is Aldebaran.
Re: APOD: Earth and Moon from MESSENGER (2010 Sep 01)
Posted: Wed Sep 01, 2010 1:30 pm
by jac12358
Earth in Cancer - really? I was wondering what star field I was seeing. Could not make it out. Humbling, really. I guess you'd have to know the date and position of Messenger to work out the reverse view. How many arcs wide is the whole image?
Re: APOD: Earth and Moon from MESSENGER (2010 Sep 01)
Posted: Wed Sep 01, 2010 2:01 pm
by emc
Such a cool picture... Today’s APOD got me wondering if either Voyager is equipped to research a means to identify Earth like planets by reporting what is seen when looking back at our pale blue dot. Apparently not, the spacecraft are slated to lose power and fuel around 2020.
http://voyager.jpl.nasa.gov/mission/interstellar.html
The Voyagers have enough electrical power and thruster fuel to operate at least until 2020. By that time, Voyager 1 will be 12.4 billion miles (19.9 billion KM) from the Sun and Voyager 2 will be 10.5 billion miles (16.9 billion KM) away. Eventually, the Voyagers will pass other stars. In about 40,000 years, Voyager 1 will drift within 1.6 light years (9.3 trillion miles) of AC+79 3888, a star in the constellation of Camelopardalis. In some 296,000 years, Voyager 2 will pass 4.3 light years (25 trillion miles) from Sirius, the brightest star in the sky . The Voyagers are destined—perhaps eternally—to wander the Milky Way.
And after looking at today’s impressive picture and reading Voyager’s fates… I can't help but feel a sense of physical isolation from the distant stars and yet a mental joy at what science is revealing for us. Kind of like watching one of those fabulous cooking shows on HDTV and no food in my kitchen...
At least I have my wheelbarrow… (Thanks Orin!)
Re: APOD: Earth and Moon from MESSENGER (2010 Sep 01)
Posted: Wed Sep 01, 2010 2:31 pm
by Randy Stubbings
Why does the Earth-Moon distance appear to be less than one Earth diameter?
Re: APOD: Earth and Moon from MESSENGER (2010 Sep 01)
Posted: Wed Sep 01, 2010 2:35 pm
by orin stepanek
emc wrote:Such a cool picture... Today’s APOD got me wondering if either Voyager is equipped to research a means to identify Earth like planets by reporting what is seen when looking back at our pale blue dot. Apparently not, the spacecraft are slated to lose power and fuel around 2020.
http://voyager.jpl.nasa.gov/mission/interstellar.html
The Voyagers have enough electrical power and thruster fuel to operate at least until 2020. By that time, Voyager 1 will be 12.4 billion miles (19.9 billion KM) from the Sun and Voyager 2 will be 10.5 billion miles (16.9 billion KM) away. Eventually, the Voyagers will pass other stars. In about 40,000 years, Voyager 1 will drift within 1.6 light years (9.3 trillion miles) of AC+79 3888, a star in the constellation of Camelopardalis. In some 296,000 years, Voyager 2 will pass 4.3 light years (25 trillion miles) from Sirius, the brightest star in the sky . The Voyagers are destined—perhaps eternally—to wander the Milky Way.
And after looking at today’s impressive picture and reading Voyager’s fates… I can't help but feel a sense of physical isolation from the distant stars and yet a mental joy at what science is revealing for us. Kind of like watching one of those fabulous cooking shows on HDTV and no food in my kitchen...
At least I have my wheelbarrow… (Thanks Orin!)
Ed; you remember that?
here's your solar system portrait!
![Image](http://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/image/planetary/solar_system/family_portraits.jpg)
Re: APOD: Earth and Moon from MESSENGER (2010 Sep 01)
Posted: Wed Sep 01, 2010 2:50 pm
by hess
It just hangs there-no strings!! Awesome!!!!!!!!!!!!
Re: APOD: Earth and Moon from MESSENGER (2010 Sep 01)
Posted: Wed Sep 01, 2010 3:08 pm
by Ann
Randy Stubbings wrote:Why does the Earth-Moon distance appear to be less than one Earth diameter?
Probably because the Moon is either slightly behind or slightly in front of the Earth in its orbit around it. Theoretically the Moon could have occulted the Earth, so that it wouldn't have shown up in this image.
Ann
Re: APOD: Earth and Moon from MESSENGER (2010 Sep 01)
Posted: Wed Sep 01, 2010 3:22 pm
by Randy Stubbings
Right after I posted my comment I went, duh!
Re: APOD: Earth and Moon from MESSENGER (2010 Sep 01)
Posted: Wed Sep 01, 2010 3:31 pm
by biddie67
Thank you Messenger!!! What a mind-opening view of our fine planet and its companion!