Image: Earth and Moon seen from 183 million kilometers by MESSENGER

Description: In the lower left portion of this image, the Earth can be seen, as well as the much smaller Moon to Earth's right. When MESSENGER took this image, a distance of 183 million kilometers (114 million miles) separated the spacecraft and Earth. To provide context for this distance, the average separation between the Earth and the Sun is about 150 million kilometers (93 million miles). The orientation of this image is that as seen by MESSENGER's Wide Angle Camera (WAC) when this image was captured. The direction of north is very nearly toward the bottom of the image, and Earth is located near the boundary of the constellations Libra and Scorpius. Specifically, the right ascension and declination coordinates for Earth in this image are 15:37:04 and -20:45:42, respectively. The bright star directly to the right of the Earth-Moon pair and almost to the edge of the image is the star delta Scorpii, a bright star near the "head" of that constellation. The pair of stars in the lower-right corner are the stars omega-1 and omega-2 Scorpii. Some of the bright features in this image, such as the streaks located near the upper right, are not stars but rather are due to cosmic ray particles striking the MESSENGER camera while the image was being taken. Images used to search for vulcanoids involve 10-second exposure times, which is a relatively long time in comparison to imaging planetary surfaces, like Mercury's. The longer exposure time makes it more likely that such a cosmic ray strike will occur.
Title: Earth and Moon seen from 183 million kilometers by MESSENGER
Credit: http://messenger.jhuapl.edu/
Author: NASA/Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory/Carnegie Institution of Washington
Usage Terms: Public domain
License: Public domain
Attribution Required?: No