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BepiColombo [spacecraft] Reveals Mercury In A New Light [remote sensing]
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https://www.esa.int/Science_Exploration/Space_Science/BepiColombo/BepiColombo_reveals_Mercury_in_a_new_light <-- ESA technical release
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“On 1 December 2024, BepiColombo flew past Mercury for the fifth time. During this flyby, BepiColombo became the first spacecraft ever to observe Mercury in mid-infrared light..."
#GIS #spatial #mapping #remotesensing #astrogeology #geology #solarsystem #spacecraft #Mercury #BepiColombo #infrared #planet #geology #spatialanalysis #flyby #orbit #MERTIS

This image of Mercury was captured by the ESA/JAXA BepiColombo mission on 1 December 2024, as the spacecraft approached its fifth of six gravity assist manoeuvres at the planet.

This view was captured at 11:46 CET by the Mercury Transfer Module’s monitoring camera 2 (M-CAM 2), when the spacecraft was over 51 000 km from the planet’s surface, 3 hours 37 minutes before closest approach. The spacecraft’s minimum distance to the surface of 37 626 km was reached at 15:23:41 CET, when none of the three monitoring cameras could view Mercury.

The monitoring cameras provide black-and-white images at 1024 x 1024 pixel resolution. This image has been lightly processed to reduce some banding effects caused by the camera having no mechanical shutter.

When this image was taken, BepiColombo was high over Mercury's northern hemisphere, heading southwards at a speed of 2.8 km/s relative to the planet.

Even at this great distance from the planet, one of the most prominent features of Mercury – a 1550 km-wide impact basin named Caloris Planitia – is visible as a brighter circular feature on the planet's disc. At the time, Caloris was close to local noon. In this view, the north pole of the planet was located on the right, around halfway down the line between day and night.

BepiColombo will pass much closer to Mercury’s north pole during its final flyby of Mercury on 8 January 2025 – its last visit before arriving to enter orbit about the planet in November 2026.

This coloured part of this image shows the first-ever measurement by a spacecraft of how Mercury radiates in mid-infrared light. It was measured by the MERTIS instrument on the ESA/JAXA BepiColombo mission on 1 December 2024, as the spacecraft flew past the planet for the fifth time.

MERTIS... will be a key tool for BepiColombo to uncover what Mercury's surface is made of. The colours in this image indicate how much Mercury's surface radiates with a wavelength of 8.45 micrometres. This radiance depends on what minerals the cratered surface is made of, the surface roughness and the temperature. The regularly appearing gaps on the map are due to the calibration cycle on the instrument.

The greyscale background image shows the surface of Mercury as observed by NASA’s Messenger mission. You can use the slider to directly compare MERTIS's infrared measurements to Messenger's visible light observations.

MERTIS's view during this flyby covers part of the largest impact crater on Mercury, called the Caloris Basin. The zoom panel shows a close-up of the area around the Bashō impact crater. Messenger's visible light images show that Bashō impact crater exhibits both very dark and very bright material. The MERTIS flyby observations reveal that the crater also stands out in infrared light.

The lower right shows the flyby coverage projected on the Mercury globe. The flyby MERTIS data shown in grey is overlaid on the global mosaic of a topography map based on Messenger data.

On Sunday 1 December 2024, BepiColombo will fly past planet Mercury for the fifth time, readying itself for entering orbit around the Solar System’s mysterious innermost planet in 2026.

The spacecraft will fly between Mercury and the Sun, getting to within 37 630 km from the small planet’s surface at 15:23 CET. This is much farther than its first four flybys of the planet, when BepiColombo flew as close as 165–240 km from the surface.

What makes this flyby special is that it will be the first time that BepiColombo’s MERTIS instrument is able to observe Mercury. This radiometer and thermal infrared spectrometer will measure how much the planet radiates in infrared light, something which depends on both the temperature and composition of the surface.

This will be the first time that any spacecraft measures what Mercury looks like in mid-infrared wavelengths of light (7–14 micrometres). The data that MERTIS will collect throughout the mission will reveal what types of minerals the planet’s surface is made of, one of the key Mercury mysteries that BepiColombo is designed to tackle...

[Image description: Infographic explaining BepiColombo’s fifth flyby of Mercury. In the centre of the graphic we see the spacecraft flying past the planet. On the left we see the inner Solar System in perspective, with the positions of Mercury, Venus and Earth indicated. On the right we see which of BepiColombo’s instruments will be activated during the flyby.]

This greyscale part of this image shows the first-ever measurement by a spacecraft of how Mercury radiates in mid-infrared light. It was measured by the MERTIS instrument on the ESA/JAXA BepiColombo mission on 1 December 2024, as the spacecraft flew past the planet for the fifth time. The MERTIS data is overlaid on the global mosaic of a topography map based on data from NASA's Messenger mission.

MERTIS, short for Mercury Radiometer and Thermal Infrared Spectrometer, will be a key tool for BepiColombo to uncover what Mercury's surface is made of. The brightness in this image indicates how much Mercury's surface radiates with a wavelength of 8.45 micrometres. This radiance depends on what minerals the cratered surface is made of, the surface roughness and the temperature. The regularly appearing gaps on the map are due to the calibration cycle on the instrument.

[#BepiColombo survole #Mercure ...] Ce 1er décembre, la #sonde européano-japonaise s'est positionnée entre le #Soleil et la planète Mercure, recueillant un ensemble de données scientifiques - relatives notamment à sa #composition de surface.

Le survol d'une #planète, c'est l'occasion en effet pour les scientifiques des agences spatiales impliquées - ici l' ESA et la JAXA, d'allumer les #instruments embarqués, de vérifier leur bon fonctionnement, et de collecter de nouvelles données. Cette fois, ce sont des données relatives à la #température et la composition de surface de la planète Mercure qu'a recueillies l'instrument #MERTIS, un radiomètre et #spectromètre infrarouge thermique.

Une première ! Jamais en effet Mercure n'avait encore été observée dans ce domaine de longueurs d'ondes, l'IR moyen. Infos+ : https://www.esa.int/ESA_Multimedia/Images/2024/11/BepiColombo_s_fifth_Mercury_flyby