At 06:59 Central European time on January 8, the BepiColombo spacecraft successfully performed its sixth flyby of Mercury, the innermost planet in the solar system. This is a “gravity-assisted maneuver,” a move that uses Mercury’s gravitational pull to alter the trajectory of the BepiColombo vehicle, which will bring it into orbit around the planet by the end of 2026. BepiColombo is a joint mission by the European Space Agency (ESA). ) and the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) which will study the composition of Mercury. The vehicle, consisting of two probes – ESA’s Mercury Planetary Orbiter and JAXA’s Mercury Magnetospheric Orbiter – was launched in the fall of 2018 and has previously orbited the sun. When it approaches Mercury again, the vehicle will separate, and the two probes will head for a special polar orbit. BepiColombo’s scientific work is then scheduled for early 2027, when the probe will search for information on how the planet was formed and whether some craters contain water in the form of ice. Until then, we’ll have to make do with the details we have. the three images were taken by the vehicle during the latest flyby.
