The BepiColombo mission performed its sixth flyby of Mercury, capturing stunning close-up images of the planet's surface, including its shadowed craters and the Caloris basin, the largest impact crater on Mercury.
The joint European Space Agency ( ESA ) and Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency ( JAXA ) BepiColombo mission performed its sixth flyby of Mercury yesterday, January 8, 2025. This historic maneuver enabled the spacecraft to capture images of the planet's surface, including its north pole. At 06:59 CET, BepiColombo flew just 295 km above Mercury ’s surface on the planet’s cold, dark night side.
Around seven minutes later, it passed directly over Mercury’s north pole before getting clear views of the planet’s sunlit north. After BepiColombo flew through Mercury’s shadow, M-CAM 1 captured the first close-up shots of Mercury’s surface. After flying over the ‘terminator,’ the boundary between day and night, BepiColombo had the unusual opportunity to look straight down into the craters on Mercury’s north pole. These craters live in perpetual shadow. These unlit craters are among the coldest places in the entire Solar System, even though Mercury is the closest planet to the Sun. There’s evidence these craters contain frozen water, which BepiColombo will investigate. The spacecraft captured close-up views of Mercury using its monitoring cameras (M-CAMs). These three cameras capture monochrome images with different fields of view. Each camera shoots 1,024 by 1,024-pixel photos. BepiColombo’s sixth Mercury flyby marks the final time the M-CAMs will get close-up views of the planet, as the spacecraft module they’re attached to will soon separate from the pair of mission orbiters: the ESA Mercury Planetary Orbiter and JAXA’s Mercury Magnetospheric Orbiter. The module will split off from the orbiters before they enter orbit around Mercury in late 2026. Another of M-CAM 1’s photos, taken just five minutes after the one above, shows Mercury’s cratered surface. Along the bottom left part of the planet is the Caloris basin, Mercury’s largest impact crater. The basin is more than 1,500 kilometers wide. “This is the first time that we performed two flyby campaigns back-to-back. This flyby happens a bit more than a month after the previous one,” says Frank Budnik, BepiColombo Flight Dynamics Manager. “Based on our preliminary assessment, everything proceeded smoothly and flawlessly.” Mercury is a very dark planet — it reflects about two-thirds as much light as the Moon — but the planet’s younger features are relatively brighter. Scientists remain unsure precisely what Mercury is made of, but photos like this shed light on the matter. Scientists can learn about the planet’s geology based on the reflectivity of different parts of its surface, which vary in age thanks to crater impacts. BepiColombo’s primary mission phase is scheduled to start in a couple of years, but the six flybys before then have proven valuable. “In the next few weeks, the BepiColombo team will work hard to unravel as many of Mercury’s mysteries with the data from this flyby as we can,” says Geraint Jones, BepiColombo’s Project Scientist at ESA. BepiColombo launched on October 20, 2018. The joint ESA and JAXA mission is Europe’s first to Mercury. The two orbiters are slated to enter Mercury’s orbit in late 2026, with scientific operations expected to commence early the following year
Bepicolombo Mercury Spacecraft Flyby Images Craters Caloris Basin ESA JAXA
United States Latest News, United States Headlines
Similar News:You can also read news stories similar to this one that we have collected from other news sources.
BepiColombo Captures Stunning Images of Mercury's North PoleThe European-Japanese spacecraft BepiColombo has captured close-up photos of Mercury's north pole, revealing permanently shadowed craters and volcanic plains.
Read more »
BepiColombo Captures Stunning Images of Mercury During Final FlybyThe ESA/JAXA BepiColombo spacecraft has completed its sixth and final flyby of Mercury, capturing breathtaking images of the planet's surface. These images provide valuable insights into Mercury's geology, including its craters, volcanic plains, and the potential for subsurface ice. BepiColombo is scheduled to enter orbit around Mercury in 2026, marking the beginning of its primary mission.
Read more »
BepiColombo Snaps Stunning Images of Mercury's North PoleThe BepiColombo spacecraft has captured breathtaking images of Mercury's north pole during its closest flyby yet. The images reveal permanently dark craters, volcanic plains, and the largest impact crater on Mercury.
Read more »
BepiColombo Reveals Stunning Views of Mercury's Polar RegionsThe joint European-Japanese BepiColombo spacecraft has captured some of the clearest images of Mercury's north pole and northern regions during its latest flyby. The images, released by the European Space Agency (ESA), reveal the planet's stark division between sunlight and darkness, shadowed crater regions, and expansive volcanic plains.
Read more »
BepiColombo spacecraft flies by Mercury, sees volcanic plain and impact cratersKiona Smith is a science writer based in the Midwest, where they write about space and archaeology. They've written for Inverse, Ars Technica, Forbes and authored the book, Peeing and Pooping in Space: A 100% Factual Illustrated History. They attended Texas A&M University and have a degree in anthropology.
Read more »
Respiratory Illnesses Surge Post-Holidays; ESA Captures Stunning Mercury ImagesThis article discusses the increase in respiratory illnesses after the holiday season and highlights new images of Mercury captured by the BepiColombo spacecraft.
Read more »