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.
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