BepiColumbo completes third Mercury flyby
Click for original image.
On June 19, 2023, the European Mercury orbiter BepiColumbo made the third of six planned flybys of Mercury on its way to orbit around that planet in 2025.
The closest approach was only 146 miles above the planet’s surface. Though no pictures were taken at that point because it was Mercury’s night side, as the spacecraft moved away it used one of its monitoring cameras, designed primarily to monitor the spacecraft itself, to look back at the planet. The picture to the right, cropped, reduced, and sharpened to post here, is one of the first taken. From its caption:
The image was taken at 19:49 UTC (21:49 CEST) by the Mercury Transfer Module’s monitoring camera 3, when the spacecraft was about 2536 km from the planet’s surface. Closest approach took place at 19:34 UT (21:34 CEST) on the night side of the planet at about 236 km altitude. The back of the Mercury Planetary Orbiter’s high-gain antenna and part of the spacecraft’s body is also visible in front of Mercury in this image.
Despite the dark nature of the image, several interesting geological features are seen in beautiful detail. Of particular interest is Beagle Rupes, a 600 km-long scarp that snakes over the surface. In this view it is seen cutting through a distinctive elongated crater named Sveinsdóttir, which likely got its shape from an impactor striking the surface at an angle.
The next flyby will occur on September 5, 2024.
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Click for original image.
On June 19, 2023, the European Mercury orbiter BepiColumbo made the third of six planned flybys of Mercury on its way to orbit around that planet in 2025.
The closest approach was only 146 miles above the planet’s surface. Though no pictures were taken at that point because it was Mercury’s night side, as the spacecraft moved away it used one of its monitoring cameras, designed primarily to monitor the spacecraft itself, to look back at the planet. The picture to the right, cropped, reduced, and sharpened to post here, is one of the first taken. From its caption:
The image was taken at 19:49 UTC (21:49 CEST) by the Mercury Transfer Module’s monitoring camera 3, when the spacecraft was about 2536 km from the planet’s surface. Closest approach took place at 19:34 UT (21:34 CEST) on the night side of the planet at about 236 km altitude. The back of the Mercury Planetary Orbiter’s high-gain antenna and part of the spacecraft’s body is also visible in front of Mercury in this image.
Despite the dark nature of the image, several interesting geological features are seen in beautiful detail. Of particular interest is Beagle Rupes, a 600 km-long scarp that snakes over the surface. In this view it is seen cutting through a distinctive elongated crater named Sveinsdóttir, which likely got its shape from an impactor striking the surface at an angle.
The next flyby will occur on September 5, 2024.
Readers!
Every February I run a fund-raising drive during my birthday month. This year I celebrate my 72nd birthday, and hope and plan to continue writing and posting on Behind the Black for as long as I am able.
I hope my readers will support this effort. As I did in my November fund-raising drive, I am offering autographed copies of my books for large donations. Donate $250 and you can have a choice of the hardback of either Genesis: the Story of Apollo 8 or Conscious Choice: The origins of slavery in America and why it matters today and for our future in outer space. Donate $200 and you can get an autographed paperback copy of either. IMPORTANT! If you donate enough to get a book, please email me separately to tell me which book you want and the address to mail it to.
Please consider supporting my work here at Behind the Black. My analysis of space, politics, and culture, taken from the perspective of an historian, is almost always on the money and ahead of the game. For example, in 2020 I correctly predicted that the COVID panic was unnecessary, that the virus was apparently simply a variation of the flu, that masks were not simply pointless but if worn incorrectly were a health threat, that the lockdowns were a disaster and did nothing to stop the spread of COVID. Every one of those 2020 conclusions has turned out right.
Your help allows me to do this kind of intelligent analysis. I take no advertising or sponsors, so my reporting isn't influenced by donations by established space or drug companies. Instead, I rely entirely on donations and subscriptions from my readers, which gives me the freedom to write what I think, unencumbered by outside influences.
You can support me either by giving a one-time contribution or a regular subscription. There are four ways of doing so:
1. Zelle: This is the only internet method that charges no fees. All you have to do is use the Zelle link at your internet bank and give my name and email address (zimmerman at nasw dot org). What you donate is what I get.
2. Patreon: Go to my website there and pick one of five monthly subscription amounts, or by making a one-time donation.
3. A Paypal Donation or subscription:
4. Donate by check, payable to Robert Zimmerman and mailed to
Behind The Black
c/o Robert Zimmerman
P.O.Box 1262
Cortaro, AZ 85652
You can also support me by buying one of my books, as noted in the boxes interspersed throughout the webpage or shown in the menu above.
I spent more than half my professional life teaching astronomy.
I spent almost as much time preparing tax returns for much more income.
Mercury has never been a particularly sexy planet. Lots of geology and volcanology, but we won’t be visiting there anytime soon very often.
I look at these photos and I see tax returns.