Messenge Spacecraft Video

The Mercury-bound MESSENGER spacecraft captured several stunning images
of Earth during a gravity assist swingby of its home planet on Aug. 2,
2005. Several hundred images, taken with the wide-angle camera in
MESSENGER's Mercury Dual Imaging System (MDIS), were sequenced into a
movie documenting the view from MESSENGER as it departed Earth.

Comprising 358 frames taken over 24 hours, the movie follows Earth
through one complete rotation. The spacecraft was 40,761 miles (65,598
kilometers) above South America when the camera started rolling on Aug.
2. It was 270,847 miles (435,885 kilometers) away from Earth (farther
than the Moon's orbit) when it snapped the last image on Aug. 3.

http://messenger.jhuapl.edu/the_miss...is_depart.mpeg

It looks like a movie special effect but it's real.


Gareth
--
"Stupid Gravity!"
Homer Simpson falling from a treehouse