Euro-Japanese space mission captures images of Mercury

by



[ad_1]

A Euro-Japanese space mission seeking to learn more about Mercury had its first glimpse of the planet on Friday evening when a European spacecraft took a photo of it from more than 2,400 kilometers away.

“Hello Mercury! This splendid view of part of the northern hemisphere of Mercury was captured by @ESA_MTM about 10 minutes later #MercuryFlyby close approach, at a distance of 2,420 km, ”the joint mission BepiColombo tweeted early Saturday. The tweet mentioned the European Space Agency’s Mercury Planetary Orbiter, which took the photo.

The photo was taken at around 11:44 p.m. UTC (or 7:44 p.m. ET). Barely 10 minutes earlier, the spacecraft was less than 200 kilometers from the planet. The European Space Agency noted that this was the first gravitational assist maneuver on the planet.

The mission, which includes ESA’s Mercury Planetary Orbiter and Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency’s Mercury Magnetospheric Orbiter, was launched in October 2018 to study the evolution and origin of Mercury and will examine the magnetic field , the exosphere and the heart-surface processes of the planet.

The mission also investigates whether there is water on Mercury, why it has a magnetic field, and whether the planet is alive or dead.

The overall operation is expected to take seven years and includes an overflight of Earth, two over Venus and six over Mercury, according to ESA.

Scientists expect the spacecraft to arrive at Mercury on December 5, 2025.

The mission was named after Giuseppe ‘Bepi’ Colombo, an Italian mathematician and engineer, whose calculations helped inspire a previous orbit around Mercury.



[ad_2]

Source link