BepiColombo snaps stunning views of Mercury during third flyby


The European-Japanese BepiColombo mission, which is on its way to explore the mysteries of Mercury, has captured some breathtaking images of the planet during its third and closest flyby on June 19, 2023.


The spacecraft flew within 150 miles (236 kilometers) of Mercury's surface at 3:34 p.m. EDT (1934 GMT), taking advantage of the planet's gravity to adjust its trajectory towards its final destination. During the flyby, BepiColombo collected data on Mercury's environment and geology, and sent them back to Earth.


The European Space Agency (ESA) released the first of these new images on Tuesday, less than 24 hours after the closest approach. The images reveal a geology bounty: a plethora of craters, ancient volcanic ridges and lava flows.


Mercury by BepiColombo
Image credit ESA, JAXA



One of the most curious features in the images is a crater that has only just received a new name: Edna Manley, after a Jamaican/British artist who died in 1987. "During our image planning for the flyby, we realized this large crater would be in view, but it didn't yet have a name," David Rothery, Professor of Planetary Geosciences at the UK's Open University and a member of the BepiColombo science imaging team, said in an ESA statement.


"It will clearly be of interest for BepiColombo scientists in the future, because it has excavated dark 'low-reflectance material' that may be remnants of Mercury's early carbon-rich crust. In addition, the basin floor within its interior has been flooded by smooth lava, demonstrative of Mercury's prolonged history of volcanic activity."

Image credit ESA/JAXA


The spacecraft also spotted the **Beagle Rupes escarpment**, a 370-mile-long (600 km) cliff that formed billions of years ago when the young Mercury cooled and contracted. The Beagle Rupes was discovered by NASA's Messenger mission that orbited Mercury between 2011 and 2015, and scientists are looking forward to comparing the original views with those captured by BepiColombo.


BepiColombo is set to enter the orbit of Mercury in 2025, but in the meantime, it will be making several more flybys of the planet, including a close approach in October 2023. The mission will actually place two probes in orbit around Mercury: the ESA-led Mercury Planetary Orbiter and the JAXA-led Mercury Magnetospheric Orbiter, Mio.


Both probes will spend a year collecting data to help scientists better understand the small, mysterious planet, such as determining more about the processes that unfold on its surface and its magnetic field. This information could reveal the origin and evolution of the closest planet to the sun.


SpaceQuanta blogs 

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