Looking Out at Our Solar System From MESSENGER

Photo from MESSENGER: A Solar System Family Portrait, from the Inside Out

"Comprised of 34 WAC image positions with NAC insets, the majority of this mosaic was obtained on 3 November 2010. However, due to pointing constraints on the spacecraft, the portion of the mosaic near and covering Neptune was acquired a few weeks later on 16 November 2010. All of the planets are visible except for Uranus and Neptune, which at distances of 3.0 and 4.4 billion kilometers were too faint to detect with even the longest camera exposure time of 10 seconds, though their positions are indicated. (The dwarf-planet Pluto, smaller and farther away, would have been even more difficult to observe). Earth's Moon and Jupiter's Galilean satellites (Callisto, Ganymede, Europa, and Io) can be seen in the NAC image insets."

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