A spacecraft has sent back detailed images of Mercury. The ESA/JAXA BepiColombo mission made its third of six fly-bys of the closest planet to the sun on Monday.
It managed to snap images of a newly named impact crater as well as tectonic and volcanic curiosities as it adjusts its trajectory for entering Mercury orbit in 2025. The images were captured by the onboard monitoring cameras, which provide black-and-white snapshots in 1024x1024 pixel resolution.
Many geological features are visible, including the newly named Manley impact crater. The closest approach took place on Monday evening about 236 km above the surface, on the night side of the planet.
Ignacio Clerigo, ESA’s BepiColombo spacecraft operations manager, said: "Everything went very smoothly with the flyby and images from the monitoring cameras taken during the close approach phase of the flyby have been transmitted to the ground. While the next Mercury flyby isn’t until September 2024, there are still challenges to tackle in the intervening time; our next long solar electric propulsion ‘thruster arc’ is planned to start early August until mid-September.
"In combination with the flybys, the thruster arcs are critical in helping BepiColombo brake against the enormous gravitational pull of the sun before we can enter orbit around Mercury."
