Launched in 2018, the BepiColombo spacecraft is due to make its flyby of Earth this Friday 10 April, helping it slow down to allow the Sun’s gravity to pull it closer to Mercury. This picture comes from 2014, showing its main Mercury Planetary Orbiter module bathed in simulated sunlight during ground testing, to give an idea of how the spacecraft will…
Tag: bepicolombo
Spot BepiColombo during its goodbye flyby on April 9-10
On the night of April 9-10, BepiColombo will pass 7,891 miles (12,700 km, about 1 Earth diameter) from Earth’s surface. For most of us, it’ll pass unseen. But people with telescopes will spot it! How to spot BepiColombo on its roundabout journey to Mercury – charts and more – here. Source: https://earthsky.org/space/mercury-craft-bepicolombo-earth-flyby-apr-2020…
ESA to conduct BepiColombo flyby amid coronavirus crisis
Controllers at ESA’s mission control center are preparing for a gravity-assist flyby of the European-Japanese Mercury explorer BepiColombo. The maneuver, which will see the mission adjust its trajectory by harnessing Earth’s gravitational pull as it swings past the planet, will be performed amid restrictions ESA has implemented in response to the coronavirus pandemic. Source: https://phys.org/news/2020-03-esa-bepicolombo-flyby-coronavirus-crisis.html…
Venus to take center stage in October 2020 observation campaign
Launched in 2018, the BepiColombo mission will have the first of its 2 encounters with Venus – while on its way to Mercury – in October 2020. Coordinated observations at that time will involve 2 spacecraft and multiple ground-based telescopes. Source: https://earthsky.org/space/venus-bepicolombo-october-2020-observation…
Image: Instant space selfies
How many times have you taken a selfie and posted it instantly to your favourite social media channel? The Mercury Transfer Module of the BepiColombo spacecraft, currently en route to Mercury, is equipped with three ‘selfie-cams’ and this morning captured a series of snapshots and subsequently posted them to its Twitter account. Source: https://phys.org/news/2019-06-image-instant-space-selfies.html…
Planet Mercury Has Solid Inner Core About the Same Size as Earth’s
A new analysis has found that Mercury has a solid inner core, just like Earth does. And Mercury’s core is just about the same size as our own planet’s. Read more…Source: https://gizmodo.com/planet-mercury-has-solid-inner-core-about-the-same-size-1834145079…