BepiColombo says goodbye to Mercury for the fourth time

Mercury is receding into the distance in this image taken by the ESA/JAXA BepiColombo mission in the early hours of 5 September 2024 as the spacecraft sped by for its fourth of six gravity assist manoeuvres at the planet. 

The image was captured at 00:11 CEST by the Mercury Transfer Module’s monitoring camera 2 (M-CAM 2), when the spacecraft was about 3459 km from the planet’s surface. The spacecraft’s closest approach of 165 km took place at 23:48 CEST. 

The image is a nice teaser of what scientists would like to study in much more detail when BepiColombo starts is main science mission in early 2027. For the first time, BepiColombo saw Mercury’s south pole (top right). Sunlight never reaches the floor of some craters in this region, so despite the planet being very close to the Sun, the land remains freezing cold, making it likely that there is water ice present. 

The surface of Mercury hosts many fascinating geological features, including four craters close to Mercury’s south pole. The large ring around the south pole indicates the area designated as the south polar region (the equivalent of Earth’s ‘polar circle’). 

Also in the image are the Mercury Planetary Orbiter’s medium gain antenna (top centre) and magnetometer boom (right). 

North is to the lower left.

Read more about BepiColombo's fourth Mercury flyby

Click here for the annotated version of this image

[Image description: The complete disc of planet Mercury in the background with its grey, cratered, pock-marked surface. The image is lit from the left by the Sun. In the foreground are some spacecraft parts.]