The BepiColombo spacecraft took a picture of the Earth

The BepiColombo spacecraft took a picture of the Earth
The BepiColombo spacecraft took a picture of the Earth
Anonim

Launched a year and a half ago, the European-Japanese spacecraft BepiColombo traveled within 8,000 miles (12,700 km) of Earth. The closest approach came over the South Atlantic, when telescopes in Chile caught a glimpse of an accelerating spacecraft.

The gravitational dash from Earth slowed BepiColombo down and put it on a course closer to the Sun.

It was the first of nine auxiliary planetary gravity adjustments - and the only one involving Earth - on the spacecraft's seven-year voyage to Mercury. The spacecraft, made up of two scientific orbiters, is due to reach Mercury in 2025, after passing by Venus twice and 6 times by Mercury itself. The next flyby will be near Venus in October.

Before leaving the vicinity of the Earth, BepiColombo sent black and white images of the home planet. The spacecraft has three GoPro-type cameras.

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Image

The space agency's command center in Germany had fewer employees than usual due to the coronavirus pandemic. Ground controllers were seated far apart as they controlled the overflights. Flight data will be used to calibrate the spacecraft's scientific instruments.

Scientists hope to learn more about the origin and composition of Mercury as the European and Japanese orbiters separate and begin their own orbit around the scorched planet.

Mercury is the least studied of the four rocky planets in our solar system. It is slightly larger than the Moon and orbits the Sun in just 88 days.

The spacecraft is named after the Italian mathematician and engineer Giuseppe "Bepi" Colombo. He died in 1984.

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