The BepiColombo probe sent a photo of Mercury from a distance of only 236 km
Miscellaneous / / June 21, 2023
The planet closest to the Sun resembles our Moon.
June 19 European probe BepiColombo committed the third close flyby of the planet Mercury, photographing a surface dotted with craters.
BepiColombo is a joint European-Japanese mission launched in 2018. She is now approaching the final leg of her seven-year journey through the inner solar system. During this flight, the probe relies on the gravity of the Earth, Venus and Mercury, which was the main target.
The last of the planned gravity assist maneuvers took place on Monday, with BepiColombo flying within 236 kilometers of Mercury's surface. Scientists did not miss the opportunity to photograph the closest planet to the Sun.
The images show what the ESA called a "geological gift": many craters and ancient volcanic ridges. One of the most curious features of the images is the crater, which has just been given a new name: Edna Manley, after the Jamaican-British artist who died in 1987.
Up close, scientists have discovered a dark "low reflective material" that may be the remains of Mercury's early carbon-rich crust. And the bottom of the pool inside the crater was flooded with smooth lava, indicating prolonged volcanic activity of Mercury.
The space probe also spotted the Beagle Rupes ledge system. In fact, this is a 600 km long cliff that was formed billions of years ago when the young Mercury cooled and shrank. This formation was first captured by the NASA Messenger mission, which orbited the planet between 2011 and 2015. Now scientists are looking forward to comparing the original images with the frames obtained by BepiColombo.
The images also show many ancient impact basins filled with volcanic lava during the first billion years of the planet's life, when it was still tectonically active.
The BepiColombo mission consists of two orbiters that travel through space as a duo, stacked on top of each other. Now for postcards from deep space, the probe uses cameras that were originally created for observations of the deployment of solar arrays after launch - the modules have a modest resolution of 1024 × 1024 pixel.
The main high-definition cameras are not yet available. They will be activated later when BepiColombo loses enough power to finally be captured by the weak gravity of tiny Mercury (which is only slightly larger than our moon) - in December 2025.
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