This was the sixth and final flyby of Mercury for the BepiColombo spacecraft since its launch in 2018, a manoeuvre that will assist the spacecraft in entering orbit around Mercury late next year.

“We needed nine flybys (one at Earth, two at Venus, and six at Mercury) to slow down our spacecraft and bring it into a good position to enter the orbit of Mercury.” Sequence of 89 images ...

Europe's BepiColombo mission will enter orbit of the solar system's first planet in about two years, but it's been whizzing past Mercury regularly as it lines up its approach. The ESA reports that ...

and JAXA’s Mercury Magnetosphere Orbiter (MMO), launched together on a single spacecraft, and each will enter its respective orbit around Mercury in late 2026. The mission carried out its first ...

taking advantage of the planet’s gravity to adjust its course so it can enter orbit in 2026. On the flyby, the spacecraft passed within just 180 miles of Mercury’s surface, enabling it to ...

Get the most important news from Switzerland in your inbox The flyby was intended to give the probe the necessary gravitational boost to enter an orbit around ... night side of Mercury and then ...

The maneuver put the spacecraft on course to enter orbit around Mercury late next year. The spacecraft holds two orbiters, one for Europe and the other for Japan, that will circle the planet's poles.

But of these planets, which is nearest to the sun? Mercury is a strange little world. There are some craters on its surface that never see sunlight. It also has the most extreme temperatures of ...

Dwarf planet Pluto, on the other hand, has a fairly squashed orbit. Mercury, the closest planet to the sun, has the most eccentric orbit, with the difference between the distance at perihelion and ...

Europe's BepiColombo mission will enter orbit of the solar system's first planet in about two years, but it's been whizzing past Mercury regularly as it lines up its approach. The ESA reports that ...