Good-bye Mercury!

These images were taken by MESSENGER as the spacecraft departed Mercury after completing its 2nd flyby on October 6, 2008. During this sequence, images were taken every 5 minutes.
A portion of the same sequence, totaling 198 images in all, has also been made into a movie (see PIA11412). MESSENGER will make its third and final flyby of Mercury on September 29, 2009, and will become the first Spacecraft ever to orbit Mercury in March 2011.

Date Acquired: October 6, 2008
Image Mission Elapsed Time (MET): 131788060-131840260
Instrument: Narrow Angle Camera (NAC) of the Mercury Dual Imaging System (MDIS)
Scale: Mercury’s diameter is 4880 Km (approx. 3030 miles)
Spacecraft Distange from Target: from 95.000 up to 370.000 Km (such as from about 59.000 up to 230.000 miles)