July 19, 2007

Dwayne Brown Headquarters, Washington 202-358-1726

RELEASE: 07-161

SPACECRAFT TANDEM PROVIDE NEW VIEWS OF VENUS

WASHINGTON - NASA's Mercury Surface, Space Environment, Geochemistry, and Ranging spacecraft, known as Messenger, and the European Space Agency's Venus Express recently provided the most detailed multi-point images of the Venusian atmosphere ever seen

The images result from a June 5 flyby of Venus by Messenger during its long journey to Mercury Venus Express already was in orbit at the planet The two spacecraft carry sets of instruments employing different observation techniques that complement each other

Messenger made its closest approach to Venus at a distance of approximately 210 miles on the night side of the planet At the same time, Venus Express was behind the horizon, almost above the planet's South Pole, at approximately 21,750 miles

Scientists from both missions are continuing analysis of the images and accompanying data Data included several instruments studying Venus' cloud deck and surface, plasma environment, magnetic fields, and atmosphere More results from this joint observation campaign are expected by the end of the year

Messenger launched on Aug 3, 2004, and swung by Venus first on Oct 24, 2006, and for the second time in June Messenger will enter Mercury's orbit in March 2011 Venus Express, the European Space Agency's first mission to Venus, launched on Nov 9, 2005, and reached the planet on April 11, 2006

To view new images and video of Venus, visit:

http://www nasa gov/messenger

-end-

To subscribe to the list, send a message to: hqnews-subscribe@mediaservices nasa gov To remove your address from the list, send a message to: hqnews-unsubscribe@mediaservices nasa gov

The following information is a reminder of your current mailing list subscription:

You are subscribed to the following list: [list_name]

using the following email: example@example.com

You may automatically unsubscribe from this list at any time by visiting the following URL:

http://www aus-city com/cgi-bin/dada/mail cgi/u/[list]/

If the above URL is inoperable, make sure that you have copied the entire address Some mail readers will wrap a long URL and thus break this automatic unsubscribe mechanism

You may also change your subscription by visiting this list's main screen:

http://www aus-city com/cgi-bin/dada/mail cgi/list/[list]

If you're still having trouble, please contact the list owner at:

<mailto:list
admin@aus-city
com>

The following physical address is associated with this mailing list:

http://www aus-city com