Emily Lakdawalla • Oct 07, 2009
MESSENGER is fine
The caption to today's image release from the MESSENGER team concerns their long-term campaign to study Mercury's brightness through a range of phase angles. But the real take-home message of this image is that, after the burp in operations when the spacecraft safed near close approach on its third flyby of Mercury, the spacecraft is now back to normal and functioning fine, doing science again. Yay for MESSENGER!
I'm kind of impressed by how the crater Kuiper shows up as a bright splash on Mercury, even at this great distance.
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