As millions of people observe the total lunar eclipse on October 8th , NASA’sMESSENGER probewas also catch from its orbit around Mercury . The ballistic capsule , 66 million air mile from Earth , captured several images of the Moon as it pass behind Earth and into the planet ’s phantasma .
This vivification was constructed from 31 ikon take two minutes aside , from 5:18 a.m. to 6:18 a.m. , EDT . The mental image start just before the Moon go into the darkest part of the Earth ’s shadow ( the umbra ) .
“ From Mercury , the Earth and Moon normally appear as if they were two very brilliant stars , ” order Hari Nair , a planetary scientist at the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory . “ During a lunar eclipse , the Moon seems to disappear during its passage through the Earth ’s shadow , as shown in the moving-picture show . ”
Launched on August 3 , 2004 , MESSENGER arrived at Mercury on March 18th , 2011 . in the beginning this summertime MESSENGER moved closer to Mercury than any spacecraft has before , dropping to an EL of only 62 international nautical mile . Its mission will occur to an end next spring , when it impacts onto Mercury ’s surface .
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