Tag: flyby
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Scientists use data from BepiColombo flyby to discover features within Mercury’s magnetosphere
In June 2023, the joint European Space Agency (ESA) and Japanese Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) BepiColombo mission performed a flyby of its target planet — Mercury. During the flyby, the spacecraft experienced a variety of phenomena mainly caused by the planet’s magnetic field. BepiColombo measured these phenomena, providing scientists with a preview of Mercury’s magnetic…
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ESA’s BepiColombo probe conducts third flyby of Mercury
The European Space Agency’s (ESA) BepiColombo spacecraft, which is in the midst of its seven-year journey to Mercury, has successfully completed its third flyby of the solar system’s innermost planet. BepiColombo passed 236 kilometers over the night side of Mercury on Monday, June 19 at 19:34 UTC, and started imaging with its monitoring cameras as…
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Lucy completes its first Earth gravity assist after a year in space
A year after its launch, NASA’s Jupiter Trojan asteroid explorer Lucy has completed its first of multiple Earth gravity assists on its journey to explore nine asteroids. Lucy is a first-of-its-kind mission to visit several Trojan asteroids in Jupiter’s L4 and L5 Lagrange points. The mission’s closest approach to Earth occurred on Oct. 16 at…
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Scientists wowed by new views of ‘psychedelic’ Pluto
Pluto and its Texas-sized moon Charon share an alien environment on the solar system’s outer frontier, with patches of organic ices and diverse rock types illustrated in color imagery released Tuesday. Speaking hours after NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft zoomed 7,700 miles from Pluto on the first-ever encounter with the mystery world, scientists said early images…