Fri Jan 10 09:33:15 UTC 2025: ## BepiColombo Delivers Stunning Close-Up Images of Mercury Before 2026 Orbit Insertion

**London, January 10, 2025** – The European Space Agency (ESA) has released breathtaking images of Mercury captured by the BepiColombo spacecraft during its sixth and final flyby of the planet. The images, taken just a few hundred kilometers above Mercury’s north pole, reveal unprecedented detail of the planet’s surface, including icy craters in permanent shadow and vast sunlit plains.

The flyby, which occurred on January 9th, provided crucial data that may confirm the presence of water ice within the permanently shadowed craters of Mercury. ESA Director General Josef Aschbacher revealed the images at a press briefing, highlighting the potential discovery of frozen water in dark craters such as Prokofiev, Kandinsky, Tolkien, and Gordimer. The agency stated that the permanently shadowed crater floors represent some of the coldest places in the solar system, making the potential for ice preservation particularly intriguing.

While confirmation of the presence of water will await BepiColombo’s orbital insertion in 2026, the flyby data is already proving invaluable. Frank Budnik, BepiColombo flight dynamics manager, commented that the six flybys have provided “invaluable new information about the little-explored planet.” Geraint Jones, BepiColombo’s project scientist, added that the team will dedicate the coming weeks to analyzing the data.

The BepiColombo mission, a joint venture between ESA and the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA), launched in 2018 and was built by Astrium (now Airbus). Once in orbit, BepiColombo will investigate Mercury’s enigmatic composition, including its disproportionately large iron core which constitutes 60% of its mass, and its surprisingly thin rocky exterior. The mission’s main science phase will begin in 2027, utilizing both the ESA’s Mercury Planetary Orbiter and JAXA’s Mercury Magnetospheric Orbiter to gather data from different altitudes and perspectives.

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