BepiColombo’s Third Mercury Flyby Showcased in Three Images

The European Space Agency (ESA) and the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) BepiColombo mission has completed its third of six gravity assist flybys at Mercury. The spacecraft took images of a newly named impact crater, tectonic and volcanic curiosities as it adjusted its trajectory for entering Mercury orbit in 2025. The closest approach took place on 19 June 2023, about 236 km above the planet’s surface, on the night side of the planet. During the close encounter, monitoring camera 3 snapped tens of images of the rocky planet. The images, which provide black-and-white snapshots in 1024 x 1024 pixel resolution, were downloaded overnight until early this morning. Three ‘early release’ images are presented here.