The BepiColombo mission of Europe, has sent back it’s first pictures of the innermost planet in the Solar System, the Mercury. The images were taken after the probe passed the little planet at an altitude of 200 kilometres from its surface.
Another five such missions where the spacecraft would capture the images of Mercury while it flies by the planet have been planned by the controllers. The speed of the spacecraft would be regulated with the help of gravitational pull from the planet.
By the end of 2025, Bepi is assigned to take up a stable orbit around Mercury eventually. The slow movement of the spacecraft around the planet would enable it to achieve the target, experts said.
The pictures were taken by the low-resolution monitoring cameras on the side of the spacecraft. They are the only available pictures of the planet so far. Once the probe is ready, it will deploy its high-resolution science cameras. The high-resolution cameras are tucked inside the probe, in its spacecraft stack.
Bepi is a mission with two spacecrafts in one. One of the two parts was created by the European Space Agency (ESA), and the other part belongs to the Japanese space agency (JAXA). The main cameras of the mission were obstructed by the arrangement of the two components.
Even though the pictures were not of high resolution, they enabled the scientists to pick out the recognisable features that are present on the surface of Mercury.
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