As MTI writes, the event occurred at 23:34 a.m. Greenwich Mean Time (GMT) at an altitude of 200 kilometers above the planet’s surface. Mercury’s first mission in Europe has reached its destination, but also its shortest visit. BepiColombo moves very fast to circle the planet and fly directly across it. However, under the influence of the gravitational force of Mercury, it will slow down somewhat, and as a result of the passages in the coming years, it will begin to orbit in a stable orbit around the planet over time. This will happen at the end of 2025 – Contact quotes at 24.hu.
The probe that reached Mercury split into two parts: a part called Bepi orbiting the planet in low orbit, and a part called Milo, made at the Japan Space Agency, that was collecting data from a greater distance from the planet. The European Space Agency’s 1.3 billion euro space probe is doing an extraordinary mission. Mercury has an extreme temperature, the sun is very attractive and the sun’s rays create infernal conditions. Both probes are designed to withstand a temperature of 430 degrees Celsius, which is typical for the sunny side of the planet, as well as coldness of less than 180 degrees Celsius, the shady side of Mercury.
Since the two-part structure currently obstructs the operation of the main high-resolution cameras, the first shots will be captured by the engineering cameras located on the outer surface of the probe. The resulting black and white images will be of sufficient quality for experts to identify some of the known surface formations on them.
