r/spaceporn • u/Davicho77 • 1d ago

New images of mercury from BepiColombo’s flyby yesterday. Related Content

Post image
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u/Kryshi 1d ago edited 1d ago

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BepiColombo

It was launched on an Ariane 52]) rocket on 20 October 2018 at 01:45 UTC, with an arrival at Mercury planned for November 2026, after a flyby of Earth, two flybys of Venus, and six flybys of Mercury.

Orbital mechanics are fun, it's right there, but it still has to flyby a few times before it can settle into orbit.

Thanks for the post, I didn't know about this mission.

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u/RiClious 1d ago

I'm getting Kubrick vibes from what I assume are antennas in these shots.

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u/MaccabreesDance 1d ago

Did Mercury go through a fairly recent period where it got hit so hard that large areas of it started to melt?

Most of the craters in the first image have deformed, like they either partially melted or were glazed with a giant splash of lava.

Compare the leather-like pattern of older craters on the left to the line of much newer complex craters running up the shadow line.

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u/robfmb 1d ago

Is it ablation from the sun?

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u/Mattcha462 1d ago

May be a stupid question but is it only in B&W imaging.