                        Astronomy Picture of the Day

    Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our
      fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation
                    written by a professional astronomer.

                                2022 August 9

                                Leaving Earth
    Video Credit: NASA/JHU Applied Physics Lab/Carnegie Inst. Washington

   Explanation: What it would look like to leave planet Earth? Such an
   event was recorded visually in great detail by the MESSENGER spacecraft
   as it swung back past the Earth in 2005 on its way in toward the planet
   Mercury. Earth can be seen rotating in this time-lapse video, as it
   recedes into the distance. The sunlit half of Earth is so bright that
   background stars are not visible. The robotic MESSENGER spacecraft is
   now in orbit around Mercury and has recently concluded the first
   complete map of the surface. On occasion, MESSENGER has continued to
   peer back at its home world. MESSENGER is one of the few things created
   on the Earth that will never return. At the end of its mission
   MESSENGER crashed into Mercury's surface.

                      Tomorrow's picture: stars of dust
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       Authors & editors: Robert Nemiroff (MTU) & Jerry Bonnell (UMCP)
            NASA Official: Phillip Newman Specific rights apply.
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