Europe and Japan's BepiColombo spacecraft flew past Mercury for the sixth and final time, capturing close-up images of its cratered surface, including permanently shadowed areas that may hold frozen water. The mission, a joint venture between ESA and JAXA, used Mercury's gravity to adjust its trajectory for eventual orbital insertion in 2026.
Europe and Japan’s BepiColombo beamed back close-up images of the solar system ’s innermost planet, flying through Mercury ’s shadow to peer directly onto craters that are permanently hidden in the shadows.
From this close distance, BepiColombo captured images of Mercury’s cratered surface, starting with the planet’s cold, permanently dark night side near the north pole before moving toward its sunlit northern regions.Using its monitoring cameras , BepiColombo got its first close-up view of the boundary that separates the day and night side of Mercury.
Although Mercury is a largely dark planet, its younger features appear brighter on the surface. Scientists aren’t quite sure what Mercury is made of, but material that had been dug up from beneath the surface of the planet gradually grows darker with time.In this third image, volcanic activity and large impacts are highlighted as key factors behind Mercury’s brighter regions.
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