The European Space Agency (ESA) has released some images from their spacecraft BepiColombo’s third flyby of the innermost planet of the solar system, Mercury.
In the three newly released images, we get a closer look at some of the planet’s craters. The image shown above was taken at a distance of approximately 3500 km from Mercury, while you will find two more images below, taken at distances of 1800 km and 236 km from the planet’s surface, respectively.
Below, there is also an image displaying the names of some of the planet’s craters. BepiColombo has already embarked on another orbit around the Sun, and the next flyby of Mercury will occur in September 2024. After that, the spacecraft will make two more flybys in December 2024 and January 2025. In December 2025, BepiColombo is scheduled to enter orbit around Mercury and begin its serious observation of the planet.
In the video clip below, there is an animated timelapse showing the journey of BepiColombo to Mercury so far and how it is expected to progress in the future.
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