One of the best things about missions that have survived long past their initial warranty is that mission managers have the freedom to try creative and challenging observations with their spacecraft. Thank you, MESSENGER team, for this surprising home movie!

Only about five months remain in the MESSENGER mission before the spacecraft runs out of fuel and crashes into the planet. Its orbit is now extremely low at periapsis and evolves lower over time, so depends on occasional reboosts to keep it at altitude. The most recent orbit boost happened on September 24. Two more are planned, for October 24 and January 21.