... MESSENGER captures images of Encke and ISON . ... On November 18, NASA s Mercury-orbiting MESSENGER spacecraft pointed its Mercury Dual Imaging System (MDIS) at 2P/Encke and captured an image of the comet as it sped within 2.3 million miles (3.7 million kilometers) of Mercury s surface. The next day, the probe captured a companion image of ISON (C/2012 S1) as it cruised by Mercury at a distance of 22.5 million miles (36.2 million kms) on its way to its late-November closest approach to the Sun. ...