A European and Japanese robotic spacecraft, BepiColombo, has beamed back unprecedented close-up images of Mercury's north pole. The images, released Thursday by the European Space Agency (ESA), showcase the permanently shadowed craters at the planet's top.
The spacecraft, approaching to within 183 miles (295 kilometers) of Mercury's surface during its latest flyby, also captured views of volcanic plains and the vast Caloris Basin impact crater, exceeding 930 miles (1,500 kilometers) in diameter. This flyby marks the final such maneuver before BepiColombo enters orbit later this year.
This is the spacecraft's sixth and final flyby since its 2018 launch. The maneuver will put the dual-orbiter mission – one from Europe and the other from Japan – on course to orbit Mercury's poles.
The mission is named after Italian mathematician Giuseppe Colombo, whose contributions to previous Mercury missions, including NASA's Mariner 10 and the Italian Space Agency's tethered satellite project, were instrumental.
These latest images provide crucial data for understanding Mercury's unique polar regions and its geological history.
