CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) — A spacecraft has transmitted back some of the most detailed close-up photographs to date of Mercury’s north pole. The European and Japanese robotic explorer flew within a distance of just 183 miles (295 kilometers) above the night side of Mercury before directly passing over the planet’s northernmost point. The European Space Agency unveiled the remarkable images on Thursday, showcasing the perpetually dark craters situated at the pinnacle of our solar system’s tiniest and innermost planet.
In addition to the shadowed craters, the cameras on board the spacecraft also captured striking views of the neighboring volcanic plains and Mercury’s largest impact crater, spanning an impressive distance of over 930 miles (1,500 kilometers). This particular flyby marked the sixth and final encounter with Mercury for the BepiColombo spacecraft since its launch in 2018. Following this maneuver, the spacecraft is now on a trajectory to enter orbit around Mercury by late next year. BepiColombo comprises two orbiters, one designated for Europe and the other for Japan, which will both orbit the planet’s poles.
The spacecraft is named in honor of the late Giuseppe (Bepi) Colombo, an esteemed Italian mathematician from the 20th century renowned for his contributions to NASA’s Mariner 10 mission to Mercury in the 1970s, as well as his involvement in the Italian Space Agency’s tethered satellite project that flew aboard the U.S. space shuttles.
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