The joint European Space Agency (ESA) and Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) BepiColombo mission performed its sixth flyby of Mercury yesterday, January 8, 2025. This historic maneuver enabled the spacecraft to capture incredible new photos From just 295 kilometers (183 mi) above the planet’s surface.
“At 06:59 CET, BepiColombo flew just 295 km above Mercury’s surface on the planet’s cool, dark night. About seven minutes later, it passed directly over Mercury’s north pole before acquiring a clear view of the planet’s sunlit north,” explains ESA.
The spacecraft captured close-up views of Mercury using its surveillance cameras (M-CAM). These three cameras capture monochrome images with different fields of view. Each camera shoots 1,024 by 1,024-pixel photos.
BepiColombo’s sixth Mercury flyby is the last time M-CAM will get close-up views of the planet, as the spacecraft module to which they are attached will soon separate from a pair of mission orbiters: ESA’s Mercury Planetary Orbiter and JAXA. Of Mercury Magnetospheric. Orbiter. The module will separate from the orbiter before entering Mercury orbit in late 2026.
“This is the first time that we conducted two flyby missions back to back. This flyby comes a little more than a month after the previous one,” says Frank Budnik, BepiColombo flight dynamics manager. “Based on our initial assessment, everything proceeded smoothly and flawlessly.”
BepiColombo’s primary mission phase is scheduled to begin in a few years, but the six flybys before then have proven valuable.
“Over the next few weeks, the BepiColombo team will be working hard to solve Mercury’s many mysteries with the data from this flyby,” says Geraint Jones, BepiColombo project scientist at ESA.
BepiColombo launched on October 20, 2018. The joint ESA and JAXA mission is Europe’s first mission to Mercury. Both orbiters will enter Mercury orbit in late 2026, with scientific operations expected to begin early next year.
While the three images above are the best from recent flybys, according to ESA, M-CAM’s all-new images are Available for viewing at the Planetary Science Archive,
Image Credit: ESA/BPColombo/MTM
