{"id":1040691,"date":"2026-09-03T11:19:24","date_gmt":"2026-09-03T11:19:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/1040691\/"},"modified":"2026-09-03T11:19:24","modified_gmt":"2026-09-03T11:19:24","slug":"mission-to-solve-mercurys-mysteries-nears-arrival-after-8-years","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/1040691\/","title":{"rendered":"Mission to solve Mercury\u2019s mysteries nears arrival after 8 years"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n An ambitious mission to reveal the secrets of the least explored planet in the inner solar system is about to arrive at its cosmic destination after a lengthy journey.\n <\/p>\n

\n The BepiColombo mission, a joint effort between the European Space Agency and the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency, intends to use two complementary orbiters to reveal insights into how Mercury formed and evolved so close to the sun.\n <\/p>\n

\n The mission launched on an Ariane 5 rocket from Europe\u2019s Spaceport near Kourou, French Guiana, in October 2018. Since then, it has traveled more than 6 billion miles (10 billion kilometers).\n <\/p>\n

\n BepiColombo is named for Italian engineer and mathematician Giuseppe \u201cBepi\u201d Colombo, who studied Mercury\u2019s peculiar rotation and proposed trajectories that enabled NASA\u2019s first flybys of the planet in 1974.\n <\/p>\n

\n Earth is about 10 times closer to Mercury than it is to Jupiter, but BepiColombo has taken longer to reach the tiny planet than previous missions such as Galileo and Juno heading to the largest planet in our outer solar system.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cYou can go faster to Mercury if you take a direct way to it,\u201d said Frank Budnik, flight dynamics manager for the BepiColombo mission at the ESA. \u201cBut the problem is we want to insert into an orbit with respect to Mercury. You have to bring the spacecraft to the same velocity as Mercury has, and this is a very energy-demanding transfer.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n A combination of electric propulsion and gravitational boosts from a total of nine flybys of Earth, Venus and Mercury have aided BepiColombo in reaching the correct velocity on its long cruise.\n <\/p>\n

\"BepiColombo<\/p>\n

\n But the steep challenges for BepiColombo aren\u2019t over yet. The Mercury Transfer Module, which has powered the multiyear voyage, will separate from BepiColombo\u2019s stack of two science orbiters at 8 a.m. ET Thursday.\n <\/p>\n

\n The ESA will host a live broadcast<\/a> beginning at 7:45 a.m. ET Thursday to share milestones of the nail-biting separation, and at 9:53 a.m. ET, the agency will conduct a safety check of the spacecraft to see how BepiColombo has fared so far in its mission.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cThe separation of the transfer module will take place in conditions which are exceedingly challenging, and we will have to face a considerable risk that things don\u2019t go as planned,\u201d said Ignacio Tanco, head of Inner Solar System Mission Operations at the ESA.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cIt\u2019s going to be equivalent to launching a new spacecraft, only this spacecraft happens to be around a different planet. We are going to see for the first time systems in operation that we have not been able to fully test.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n And that\u2019s just the beginning of a complex process.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cUnlike in other missions, BepiColombo\u2019s arrival doesn\u2019t mean a single event,\u201d Tanco said. \u201cWe have about half a year of intense operations ahead of us.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\"After<\/p>\n

\n Establishing an observational orbit around Mercury is even more difficult than the journey to get there.\n <\/p>\n

\n ESA\u2019s Mercury Planetary Orbiter, or MPO, and JAXA\u2019s Mercury Magnetospheric Orbiter, or MIO, will be captured by Mercury\u2019s gravity and enter orbit around the planet on November 21.\n <\/p>\n

\n The two orbiters will separate from one another between December 9 and 10, with the Mercury Planetary Orbiter moving into its orbital position on December 16 and the Mercury Magnetospheric Orbiter following on March 10.\n <\/p>\n

\n Science operations will officially begin for both orbiters in April.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cIt will be the first time that a mission releases two fully independent, fully operational separate spacecrafts around a different planet,\u201d Tanco said.\n <\/p>\n

\"BepiColombo's<\/p>\n

\n The MPO will observe the planet itself, while the MIO will focus on the space environment around Mercury, said Santa Martinez, BepiColombo mission manager at the ESA.\n <\/p>\n

\n Mercury is about 36 million miles (58 million kilometers) from the sun on average, and completes one orbit around our star every 88 days, according to NASA<\/a>. Such proximity means that the planet\u2019s surface temperatures can reach about 800 degrees Fahrenheit (430 degrees Celsius) during the day.\n <\/p>\n

\n Mercury\u2019s close distance to the sun has made it a challenging planet to explore \u2014 and it\u2019s the main driver of BepiColombo\u2019s complexity. Only two previous missions, NASA\u2019s Mariner 10<\/a> in 1974 and its MESSENGER<\/a> mission in 2011, have been in the vicinity of the rocky world. Like BepiColombo, MESSENGER took nearly seven years to reach Mercury.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cThe spacecraft in itself has been designed to operate within conditions which are extremely punishing,\u201d Tanco said. \u201cIt\u2019s essentially equivalent to operating with a very hot pizza oven running right on your back.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n Both orbiters are equipped with solar arrays to provide them with power, and they are at risk of overheating so close to the sun.\n <\/p>\n

\n The MIO will spin 15 times a minute, while the MPO will position its array at an angle almost edge-on to the sun to receive just enough sunlight while also preventing solar radiation damage.\n <\/p>\n

\n Putting two spacecraft in orbit around Mercury will provide unprecedented views of the planet and open a new chapter in scientists\u2019 understanding of the solar system, Martinez said.\n <\/p>\n

\n The orbiters will help map the planet in high resolution and answer questions that cropped up during MESSENGER\u2019s detailed survey of Mercury.\n <\/p>\n

\"An<\/p>\n

\n Each orbiter is equipped with a range of instruments to explore Mercury\u2019s structure and composition, including craters and evidence of ancient volcanic activity on its surface, as well as the planet\u2019s magnetic field and its exosphere, a thin cloud of gas that surrounds the planet, said Geraint Jones, lead project scientist for BepiColombo at the ESA.\n <\/p>\n

\n One of the mysteries that scientists are hoping to probe are the so-called hollows spotted on Mercury<\/a> by Mariner 10 and MESSENGER.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cThere are depressions in the surface that look like the surface is being eaten away,\u201d Jones said. \u201cIt might be possible that we can see changes in these regions over time.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n Hollows haven\u2019t been found elsewhere on planets in our solar system, and with no wind or water to form the thousands of puzzling depressions, scientists want to know what forces sculpted them.\n <\/p>\n

\"NASA\u2019s<\/p>\n

\n The orbiters could also help uncover the truth behind why Mercury is so dense for its small size.\n <\/p>\n

\n Some 4.5 billion years ago when the planets formed from the debris surrounding the sun, \u201cit\u2019s thought that Mercury started forming, created a modest-sized planet and then it was hit by another large planetesimal, which ripped off its outer crust,\u201d Jones said. \u201cSo that means that the overall density of the material that was left behind was much higher, and that\u2019s why it has the high density it has now.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n Learning more about Mercury\u2019s surface and interior could uphold the theory or provide new answers, Jones said.\n <\/p>\n

\n Sign up for CNN\u2019s Wonder Theory science newsletter<\/a>. Explore the universe with news on fascinating discoveries, scientific advancements and more.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"An ambitious mission to reveal the secrets of the least explored planet in the inner solar system is…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":1040692,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[8],"tags":[159,67,132,68],"class_list":["post-1040691","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-science","tag-science","tag-united-states","tag-unitedstates","tag-us"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/117206844395076467","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1040691","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1040691"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1040691\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1040692"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1040691"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1040691"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1040691"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}