Mercury is coming into better focus through the BepiColombo mission. The spacecraft flew by the planet on Jan. 8, snapping a stunning set of closeups as it went. The images show the planet’s cratered surface and volcanic plains. The photos illuminate a dark planet scientists are eager to learn more about.
BepiColombo is a joint mission from the European Space Agency and the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA). This was the spacecraft’s sixth Mercury flyby, part of a series of “gravity assist maneuvers” designed to place it into orbit around the planet by late 2026.
BepiColombo Mercury flyby highlights
ESA picked out the top three images from the flyby, which saw BepiColombo soaring over Mercury’s north pole. “Close-up images expose possibly icy craters whose floors are in permanent shadow, and the vast sunlit northern plains,” the space agency said in a statement on Jan. 9. The spacecraft was a mere 183 miles above Mercury’s surface, giving it a good look at the pockmarked surface.
The first highlighted image comes from when BepiColombo flew over the boundary between night and day, giving the spacecraft “a unique opportunity to peer directly down into the forever-shadowed craters at the planet’s north pole.” These dark craters are some of the coldest places in the solar system, according to ESA. There may be frozen water trapped in the craters. The mission will eventually study whether or not Mercury has water.
The second image was taken five minutes after the first. It features a clear look at the planet’s volcanic plains and the large Mendelssohn crater, located a little above the spacecraft equipment that appears in the view. Smaller, new craters have marked the interior. Mercury’s largest impact crater, the Caloris basin, appears in the lower left area of the planet.
ESA’s third image is notable for some bright landscape features. “On this dark planet, younger features on the surface tend to appear brighter,” ESA said. “Scientists don’t yet know what exactly Mercury is made of, but it is clear that material brought up from beneath the outer surface gradually becomes darker with age.” Look to the upper part of the planet to spot a volcanic deposit that’s lighter in color than the surrounding landscape.
BepiColombo’s Mercury mission
The images come from BepiColombo’s monitoring cameras (M-Cams). These cameras are attached to the spacecraft’s Mercury Transfer Module. The module is carrying the mission’s two orbiters—ESA’s Mercury Planetary Orbiter and JAXA’s Magnetospheric Orbiter. These spacecraft will eventually split off from the module and settle into their own orbits around Mercury.
It’s been a long journey for BepiColombo. The spacecraft launched in 2018 as Europe’s first mission to Mercury. Mercury is the smallest planet in our solar system and is also the closest planet to the sun. It’s only a little bigger than Earth’s moon. It has a short year, taking a trip around the sun every 88 Earth days.
ESA’s objective with BepiColombo is to “study and understand the composition, geophysics, atmosphere, magnetosphere and history of Mercury, the least explored planet in the inner solar system.” Previous missions have visited Mercury, but it remains an enigmatic planet. NASA’s Mariner 10 and Messenger spacecraft both checked out Mercury. Mariner 10 flew by Mercury in the 1970s while Messenger reached Mercury in 2011 and crashed into the planet at the end of its mission in 2015.
Understanding Mercury can help scientists understand Earth and how the rocky planets of the inner solar system formed. The BepiColombo flyby images are a tantalizing preview of the science yet to come.