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European-Japanese spacecraft BepiColombo captures images of Mercury

  • The images were obtained almost three years after the unmanned mission vessel was launched aboard an Ariane 5 Rocket
  • The BepiColombo mission will study all aspects of this mysterious inner planet from its core to surface processes, magnetic field and exosphere

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A view of Mercury captured on Friday by the joint European-Japanese BepiColombo mission. Photo: European Space Agency / AFP

The European-Japanese BepiColombo spacecraft has sent back its first images of Mercury, the nearest planet to the Sun, the European Space Agency said on Saturday.

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The images were obtained almost three years after the unmanned mission vessel was launched aboard an Ariane 5 Rocket.

The cameras attached the BepiColombo provided black-and-white images, the ESA said in a statement.

But as the spacecraft arrived on the night side of the planet, conditions were “not ideal” for taking images at its closest approach to the planet, an altitude of 199km (124 miles), so the closest was from about 1,000km.

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The region shown is part of Mercury’s northern hemisphere, including large craters and an area flooded by lava billions of years ago.

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