The second superclose flyby of BepiColombo, a space probe owned by ESA (European Space Agency) and (JAXA Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency).
(Photo : Screenshot from ESA's official website )
Second Superclose Mercury Flyby Completed by BepiColombo! Four More To Go Until It Orbits the Smallest Planet
But, the spacecraft still needs to complete four more flybys before it can achieve its main goal. BepiColombo is a joint mission of JAXA and ESA that aims to orbit Mercury.
ESA announced that this spacecraft was able to complete its second essential Mercury-bound flyby on Thursday, June 23. When BepiColombo was passing by the smallest planet in the solar system, it was able to capture some new exciting images.
Second Superclose Mercury Flyby Completed by BepiColombo!
According to CNET's latest report, the latest Mercury-bound flyby was the second out of six activities of BepiColombo. When the space probe reached 570 miles from the tiny planet, it captured a new portrait image.
NEW PIC OF MERCURY JUST DROPPED
— Paul Byrne (@ThePlanetaryGuy) June 23, 2022
This pic was snapped by @BepiColombo just a few hours ago, as it performed its second of six flybys of Mercury en route to finally orbiting the planet in December 2025.
Parts of the Mercury Planetary Orbiter are visible in the foreground. pic.twitter.com/yvvB36Ur3R
Also Read: BepiColombo Spacecraft Headed for Mercury Takes a Photo with Venus Along the Way
"The image was taken at 09:49:22 UTC by the Mercury Transfer Module's Monitoring Camera 2 when the spacecraft was within about 920 km from the surface of Mercury," said ESA via its official website.
Finally BepiColombo did the second flyby at estimated time. Here you can see high doppler when spacecraft was approaching just 200km above Mercury´s surface,then an increment of signal (doppler inversion curve).Second image is when spacecraft end flyby#DSN #BepiColombo #HamRadio pic.twitter.com/X91PKqwZ3s
— Antonio Fernandez (@EA1IW) June 23, 2022
The latest Mercury image is a 1024 x 1024 pixel resolution, which has been interpolated to 2048 x 2048 pixels. Thanks to this, the new photo's details were deeply enhanced.
If you want to see the actual image, you can visit this link.
Capturing the new Mercury portrait photo is not the only achievement made by the space probe. The European Space Agency added that BepiColombo's made its closest approach, which is around 200 km away from the planet.
Why BepiColombo Needs To Do This?
ESA explained that the final goal of BepiColombo is to maintain a stable orbit around Mercury. However, it needs to conduct more flybys before it can achieve this.
Doing the so-called gravity assist maneuvers allows the space probe to slow its speed until it can completely orbit the solar system's smallest planet.
ESA scientists claimed that BepiColombo can achieve its Mercury-bound orbit goal around 2025. The joint mission of ESA and JAXA is quite different from other larger space missions since it focuses on Mercury.
You can visit this link to see more details about the ongoing BepiColombo mission of JAXA and ESA.
In October 2021, some Mercury images were captured by BepiColombo after completing its first flyby.
In December 2021, Mercury's formation mystery was expected to be solved after discovering a new iron-rich planet that is close to the solar system.
For more news updates about BepiColombo and other unique space missions, always keep your tabs open here at TechTimes.
Related Article: BepiColombo Mercury Flyby: ESA, JAXA, Bepi Narrates the First Planet's Environment and MORE
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Written by: Griffin Davis
