After an 8-year journey, Europe's BepiColombo mission is making its final approach to Mercury, aiming to study the planet's origins and composition. The mission carries multiple instruments to analyze Mercury's surface, magnetic field, and exosphere in unprecedented detail.
Background
BepiColombo is a joint ESA-JAXA mission launched in 2018 to study Mercury, the smallest and closest planet to the Sun. It has performed multiple flybys of Earth, Venus, and Mercury to gradually reduce its orbit before final insertion.
- Source
- Ars Technica
- Published
- Sep 5, 2026 at 06:49 AM
- Score
- 7.0 / 10