First Image From This Week’s Rare Double Flyby of Venus

The BepiColombo deputation got this unaired - up image of the planet Venus as it passed by on August 10 . The spacecraft was using Venus for a soberness assist on its way to its ultimate destination , Mercury . It ’s one of two spacecraft zipping by the satellite this workweek , the other being Solar Orbiter , which flew retiring yesterday .

BepiColombo , a joint charge of the European Space Agency and the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency , is actually made of two attach orbiters : the Mercury Planetary Orbiter and the Mercury Magnetospheric Orbiter . The former will map the planet in great particular , and the latter will study its magnetosphere . But in monastic order for all that to encounter , the spacecraft take to slingshot itself around Venus . By a lucky happenstance , Solar Orbiter was also in the neighborhood , giving scientist a unequalled observation opportunity . We ’re still await intelligence of how Solar Orbiter ’s flyby yesterday went .

This image of a looming Venus was charter by BepiColombo when it was 977 miles by , harmonize to areleasefrom the ESA . It was taken by the spacecraft ’s third monitor camera aboard the Mercury Transfer Module . gently processed ( to enhance the contrast ) , the image captures the Mercury Planetary Orbiter ’s antenna and part of BepiColombo ’s body .

Venus looms in an image taken by the spacecraft BepiColombo on August 10, 2021 (crop).

Venus looms in an image taken by the spacecraft BepiColombo on 6 December 2024 (crop).Image:ESA/BepiColombo/MTM

It was BepiColombo ’s 2d gravity assist of Venus and thethird of nine full flybysthe spacecraft is schedule to perform as it get ever dear to Mercury . BepiColombo ’s closest feeler of Venus today arrive in at just under 350 miles above the major planet ’s Earth’s surface , making it a fairly close shaving , especially in comparison to Solar Orbiter , which only dumbfound to about 5,000 miles of the major planet yesterday , accordingto the ESA .

BepiColombo ’s next flybys will be of the planet Mercury and will slow the spacecraft down enough to enter the planet ’s orbit . The first of those is slate for early October .

More : Rare Back - to - Back Flybys of Venus Will Happen Next hebdomad

BepiColombo’s close-up image of Venus, taken by the spacecraft’s Monitoring Camera 3 on August 10, 2021.