In an event that was part-science, part-orbital maneuver, NASA's MESSENGER spacecraft made a second flyby of Venus on June 5th; a brief milestone on its journey to Mercury.
And now, the pictures are in.
During the brief encounter, MESSENGER turned its two cameras on our evil twin planet, and gave them a workout. These cameras are called the Mercury Dual Imaging System, and consist of a wide-angle and narrow-angle camera that map landforms, track variations on the surface minerals, and map out topographic details.
Of course, since Venus is covered in thick clouds, those instruments aren't able to do their real job, and reveal features on the surface of the planet. 614 pictures of clouds will have to do. During the flyby, the spacecraft came within 338 km (210 miles) of the cloudtops, giving it a high resolution view.
MESSENGER snapped pics coming in, and then turned around and snapped pics going out. During this flyby, it was joined by the European Space
Agency's Venus Express spacecraft, which was already in position at the planet. Scientists will be able to compare images from the two spacecraft for double the data. This will also give mission controllers an opportunity to compare images, and calibrate MESSENGER's instruments.
With Venus to aft, MESSENGER now has a clear shot at Mercury. It will make its first flyby in January 2008, another in October 2008, and then a final flyby in 2009, before settling into its final mapping orbit in
2011.
More images from the flyby are available here.
