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Stars Are Stars
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Caption:
This image is a "star cal" frame collected about a month before MESSENGER's first flyby of Venus . MESSENGER's cameras are designed to view the bright surface of Mercury, so a very long exposure time (about 10 seconds) is needed to capture a star field. Nonetheless, the data are useful in refining the camera's calibration. The bright stars seen here belong to the open cluster known as the Pleiades.
Date acquired:
September 26, 2006
Image Mission Elapsed Time (MET):
67753380
Image ID:
2751
Instrument:
Narrow Angle Camera (NAC) of the Mercury Dual Imaging System (MDIS)
Background Info:
The MESSENGER spacecraft is the first ever to orbit the planet Mercury, and the spacecraft's seven scientific instruments and radio science investigation are unraveling the history and evolution of the Solar System's innermost planet. Visit the Why Mercury? section of this website to learn more about the key science questions that the MESSENGER mission is addressing. During the one-year primary mission, MDIS is scheduled to acquire more than 75,000 images in support of MESSENGER's science goals.
These images are from MESSENGER, a NASA Discovery mission to conduct the first orbital study of the innermost planet, Mercury. For information regarding the use of images, see the MESSENGER image use policy .
Cataloging Keywords:
| Name | Value | Additional Values |
|---|---|---|
| Target | Pleiades | Mercury, Venus |
| System | ||
| Target Type | Planet | |
| Mission | MESSENGER | |
| Instrument Host | MESSENGER | |
| Host Type | Orbiter | |
| Instrument | Mercury Dual Imaging System (MDIS) | |
| Detector | Narrow Angle Camera (NAC) | |
| Extra Keywords | Grayscale, Radio | |
| Acquisition Date | ||
| Release Date | 2011-12-23 | |
| Date in Caption | 2006-09-26 | |
| Image Credit | NASA/Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory/Carnegie Institution of Washington | |
| Source | photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA15244 | |
| Identifier | PIA15244 | |
