Two insignificant dots, these are the Earth and the Moon taken by NASA’s Messenger probe from Mercury: the photo
During its orbit around Mercury, NASA’s Messenger spacecraft captured the following view of Earth and the Moon on May 6, 2010The now-decommissioned spacecraft was 183 million kilometers from Earth at the time, farther than our average distance from the Sun (150 million kilometers) because Mercury and Earth were at different points in their orbits around the Sun. The image was taken by the spacecraft’s Wide Angle Camera (WAC) on the Mercury Dual Imaging System (MDIS). Enjoy the stunning photo:
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The Earth and the Moon taken from Mercury.
Credit: NASA/Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory/Carnegie Institution of Washington
Some info on the smallest planet in the solar system
Mercury is the smallest planet in our solar system and the closest to the Sun. From the surface of the planet, the Sun turns out to be three times larger than it appears from Earth and seven times brighter. Despite its proximity to our star, Mercury is not the hottest planet. In fact Venus holds this record because of a frightening greenhouse effect. But Mercury is the fastest: in fact, it completes an orbit around the Sun every 88 Earth days. Mercury has a radius of 2,440 kilometers, 1/3 that of Earth, and is slightly larger than the Moon. It orbits the Sun at an average distance of 58 million kilometers: sunlight takes about 3.2 minutes to reach the planet. The orbit is strongly eccentric and brings it from 47 million kilometers to 70 million kilometers from the Sun. It completes one revolution every 88 days at an average speed of 47 kilometers per second, faster than any other planet. In contrast, Mercury rotates very slowly on its axis: completes one rotation every 59 Earth days. Its rotation axis is tilted by only 2 degrees to the plane of its orbit around the Sun. This means that it rotates almost perfectly upright and therefore has no seasons. It also features the phenomenon of precession of the perihelion, or the very change of the perihelion (the closest point to the Sun) of Mercury’s orbit. This anomaly was explained thanks to Einstein’s general relativity.
Source: NASA
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