MESSENGER flyby animation

ESA’s Venus Express, in orbit around Venus since 11 April 2006, was joined for a few hours by NASA’s MESSENGER spacecraft, flying by Venus while on its way to Mercury. This animation shows both the Venus Express and MESSENGER spacecraft in orbit around Venus at the time of the fly-by.

Earth-based observatories and telescopes in orbit around Earth were also watching. Looking at Venus together, spacecraft and ground observatories obtained a unique set of data each, so many different ‘eyes’ observed the same regions and phenomena during the same time frame.