After three years of travel, the European probe BepiColombo sent the first image of Mercury

BepiColombo is already on Mercury, and submitted the first images. A very difficult task due to the sudden gravity of the sun.

In October 2018, just 3 years ago, The BebiColombo ship took off From Europa Spaceport, in Kourou, French Guiana (South America).

Although this is a mission of the European Space Agency, which has used its own rocket and European Spaceport, it also participates Japan space agency JAXA, which will launch a probe toward Mercury from BepiColombo.

After three years of travel BepiColombo has arrived at Mercury and sent the first pictures, captured with a black and white camera, on October 1st:

Although the probe was only 199 kilometers from Mercury’s surface, the lighting conditions were not ideal for taking pictures. The ones we see are taken 1,000 kilometers away.

Although under normal conditions, it would only take a few months to reach, since Mercury is very close to the Sun. You have to travel very slowly (As the European Space Agency says, “with the handbrake”), so that it is not attracted by the immense gravity of the Sun.

BepiColombo Link Mercure Make multiple orbits on different planets, and use their gravity as a slingshot to cut the distance between us and the planet closest to the sun.

they are between 77 and 222 million km, depending on where we are in orbits.

If you don’t want to miss a single star or planet at night, start your adventure with one of these telescopes overlooking the sky.

Mercure It is a planet full of secrets. Be very close to the sun It’s hot: more than 400 degrees Celsius during the day and 190 degrees below zero at night.

It is a solid rock full of craters, similar in appearance to the moon. It is, besides Earth, the only rocky planet with a magnetic field, something that scientists cannot explain because it would need a metallic liquid core, something unimaginable due to its small size.

We don’t know either Why does the nucleus occupy 60% of its entire volume.

Specifically, the two orbits BebiColombo will launch toward Mercury, one European and one Japanese, will focus on The study of the nucleus and the magnetic fieldThe two great mysteries on this planet.

As they say, the European spacecraft has to travel very slowly to avoid being attracted to the Sun, which is why it takes so long to orbit Mercury.

The mission is expected to last 7 years.