European and Japanese joint space mission BepiColombo has successfully completed the first of six flights to its target planet Mercury. On October 1, the spacecraft was just 199 kilometers from the planet’s surface and took surprisingly detailed images of the smallest planet.
“From a spacecraft perspective, the flight was flawless and it’s incredible to finally see our target planet,” said Elsa Montagnon, BepiColombo Spacecraft Operations Manager.
BepiColombo’s tracking cameras took the first close-up images of Mercury in more than six years, revealing the large impact craters and some elements of the spacecraft. NASA’s MESSENGER, the last rover to orbit the planet, failed to reach its planned end in 2015 when it slammed into Mercury’s surface at around 14,000 kilometers per hour and created its own new crater on the planet’s surface.
“It was an incredible feeling to see these near-vivid images of Mercury,” said Valentina Galluzzi, co-researcher of BepiColombo’s SIMBIO-SYS imaging system. I can’t wait to work.”
The photos show parts of Mercury’s northern hemisphere, including the lava-filled Sihtu Planitia. The plains of Raduki, the smoother lighter area around Calvino crater, are also visible. The 166-kilometer-wide Lerminotov crater appears brighter than the others, as it contains features known as Mercury-specific “cavities” through which volatile elements escape into space. BepiCollombo will examine these in more detail when it gets there.
ESA/BepiColombo/MTM, CC BY-SA 3.0 IGOBepiColombo also captured part of Mercury’s southern hemisphere. The smooth floor of the largest crater, the 251-kilometer-wide Haydn crater, indicates that it was once filled with lava, as was most of the plains. There are some bright spots on the surface, called faculae, which are thought to be material ejected by volcanic eruptions. These were also discovered by MESSENGER and BepiColombo will gather more information.
Mercury may have lost most of its mass after a major impact, and the mission could provide evidence to confirm or refute this scenario. It will also tell us more about volcanism and lava flows.
BepiColombo’s main science mission will begin in early 2026 after being put into orbit in December 2025. A total of nine planetary flights will be completed to slow down enough to orbit Mercury without using an incredible amount of fuel. Four of them are already in the bag: one on Earth, two on Venus, and now the first on Mercury. Five more Mercury flights will be made, with the next on June 23, 2022. . .
ESA/BepiColombo/MTM, CC BY-SA 3.0 IGO
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