A satellite takes a first close-up image of Mercury

The “BabyColombo” satellite, dedicated to the exploration of Mercury, took its first images of the planet closest to the sun, and flew at an altitude of about two hundred kilometers from it, announced on Saturday the European Space Agency.

This is the first time since the launch of this joint satellite between European and Japanese space agencies in 2018, flying over the planet, which is its “target”.

It is expected that “Baby Colombo” will be placed in orbit of Mercury in 2025, because reaching the smallest planets in the solar system is very difficult.

The spacecraft’s cameras captured black and white images as it flew over Mercury, but after reaching the night side of the planet, conditions were not “ideal” for taking pictures directly from the point on. closest (199 kilometers), and the closest photos which he managed to take were at a distance of about 1000 kilometers, As the European Space Agency explained in a statement.

These images show large impact craters on the surface that were formed by the eruption of massive lava billions of years ago.

“It’s amazing to finally see our target planet,” said Elsa Montagnion, director of spacecraft operations.

The scientific instruments of this spacecraft are supposed to study the formation of Mercury with the aim of solving the mystery of this burning planet, which has undergone the least exploration of the four rocky planets in the solar system.

Five more flights over Mercury are planned before the mission’s final destination, on a complex trajectory that will also see the satellite fly over Venus and Earth.

The “BabyColombo” mission observes five more overflights of Mercury before the satellite reaches its final destination through a tangled path that also includes its flight over Venus and Earth.

It was not possible to launch the satellite directly towards Mercury, as the strong gravity of the Sun required a giant maneuver to brake the speed in order to successfully put it into orbit, which would require a large amount of fuel for a spacecraft of this size. .

Thus, the option of pointing it on an indirect trajectory and using the natural gravity of the Earth then of Venus would allow the satellite to decelerate “naturally” during its journey.