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▲ This photo was taken by BepiColombo on the 23rd during a close flight to Mercury. ESA/BepiColombo/MTM, CC BY-SA 3.0 IGO
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BepiColombo, who was on a mission to explore Mercury, the planet closest to the sun, succeeded in its second close flight (fly-by) and captured a vivid image of the surface of Mercury. On the 23rd (local time), the European Space Agency (ESA) announced that Bepi Colombo succeeded in a close flight just 200 km above Mercury’s surface and that the surface of the planet was also captured with a monitoring camera.
The image of Mercury’s surface, taken from 920 km above the planet’s surface, is full of various ‘Emperor states’. It is because it is filled with numerous craters as if photographing the moon. In particular, the name of the plains and craters of Mercury are written in the photo, and the topography called ‘Challenger Rupes’, which has a long, steep slope like a cliff at the bottom, received an official name from the International Astronomical Union (IAU) for the first time this month. Challenger Loupes is about 200km long and 2km high, and only about 170km is included in the photo.
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▲ Earth captured by Bepi Colombo’s camera. Taken on April 10, 2020. Photo = ESA/BepiColombo/MTM, CC BY-SA 3.0 IGO
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Bepicolombo, a joint venture between ESA and the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA), was launched in October 2018 to explore Mercury. Bepicolombo goes through a complicated flight path before landing in Mercury’s orbit, and it flies by Earth 1 time, Venus 2 times, and Mercury 6 times. Previously, Bepi Colombo successfully completed the first Mercury flyby on October 1, last year, by making a 200 km close flight to Mercury.
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▲ This photo was taken by Bepi Colombo during its first close flight to Mercury on October 1, last year.
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Fly-by, also called gravity assist, is a method of gaining acceleration by stealing the gravity of a planet while passing through a planet’s orbit. Bepi Colombo will enter Mercury’s orbit in December 2025 after completing the remaining four Mercury flybys.
Bepicolombo consists of two connected spacecraft and a propulsion device, whose primary mission is to image Mercury’s surface and analyze its magnetic field. In particular, Bepi Colombo is named after Giuseppe Bepi Colombo, an Italian scientist in the 20th century who developed the fly-by navigation method.
By Park Jong-ik, staff reporter pji@seoul.co.kr
