At 06:59 Central On January 8, European time, the BepiColombo spacecraft successfully completed its sixth flyby of Mercury, the innermost planet of the solar system. It was a “gravity-assisted maneuver” that used Mercury’s gravitational pull to change the course of the BepiColombo vehicle, which will carry it into orbit around the planet by the end of 2026.
BepiColombo is a joint mission of the European Space Agency (ESA) and the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) to explore the composition of Mercury. The vehicle, consisting of two probes – ESA’s Mercury Planetary Orbiter and JAXA’s Mercury Magnetospheric Orbiter – was launched in fall 2018 and had previously orbited the Sun.
When it approaches Mercury again, the vehicle will separate and both spacecraft will return to their dedicated polar orbits. BepiColombo’s scientific work is then scheduled for early 2027, when the probes will seek information about how the planet was formed and whether some of its craters contain water in the form of ice.
Until then, we will have to make do with the details contained in three photos taken by the vehicle during its last flyby.