New photographs of Mercury captured by the UK spacecraft Bepicolombo

A UK-built spacecraft has captured new photographs of Mercury on its sixth and last flyby earlier than coming into the planet’s orbit in 2026.

BepiColombo was constructed by Stevenage-based firm Astrium, now Airbus, and launched in 2018.

The spacecraft contains two satellites that can gather knowledge for not less than a yr, and requires particular safety to resist warmth from the solar.

Surveillance cameras on the spacecraft captured photographs of the planet because it flew 295km (183 miles) above Mercury’s floor, together with views of the planet’s north pole, because it was illuminated by daylight.

Bepicolombo will attempt to decide what Mercury is definitely made from, and whether or not water would possibly exist within the planet’s deepest craters.

It wanted to make 9 flybys of Earth, Venus, and Mercury earlier than it may attain the fitting pace to be captured by Mercury’s gravity.

This flyby marks the final time surveillance cameras will seize close-up photographs of Mercury, because the spacecraft modules to which they’re connected will now separate from the mission’s two satellites earlier than they transfer into orbit.

Frank Budnick, Bepicolombo flight dynamics supervisor, stated: “Bepicolombo’s foremost mission part might solely start two years from now, however all six flybys of Mercury have given us invaluable new details about the little-explored planet.”

Geraint Jones, BepiColombo undertaking scientist on the European Area Company, added: “Over the following few weeks, the BepiColombo group might be working exhausting to unravel the various mysteries of Mercury with knowledge from this flyby.”