{"id":25090,"date":"2021-10-21T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2021-10-21T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcskyatnight\/?post_type=purple_issue&p=25090"},"modified":"2021-10-21T12:29:20","modified_gmt":"2021-10-21T12:29:20","slug":"bepicolombos-first-images-of-mercury","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcskyatnight\/2021\/10\/21\/bepicolombos-first-images-of-mercury\/","title":{"rendered":"BepiColombo\u2019s first images of Mercury"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The mission will have five more flybys before entering orbit<\/p>\n\n

\"\"
BepiColombo images reveal a landscape ravaged by meteor strikes<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n

The BepiColombo <\/strong>spacecraft made its first flyby of Mercury on 1 October, passing just 200km from the planet\u2019s surface and capturing its first up-close image. The pass was one of nine gravity assist manoeuvres \u2013 one at Earth, two at Venus, six at Mercury \u2013 where the spacecraft gets a free speed adjustment by swinging past a planet. This should allow BepiColombo to match speeds with Mercury and enter orbit in 2025.<\/p>\n\n

These initial images were snapped from a distance of 2,418km from the planet\u2019s Northern Hemisphere, showing the Sihtu Planitia area, which was once smoothed over by a flood of lava that has now become pockmarked by meteor strikes. It also shows the 166km-wide Lermontov crater, containing a feature unique to Mercury \u2013 hollows, where volatile elements have explosively escaped. <\/span>www.esa.int<\/a><\/p>\n\n

IMAGES: ESA\/BEPICOLUMBO\/MTM<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The mission will have five more flybys before entering orbit<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":24,"featured_media":25511,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ub_ctt_via":"","purple_page_number":"14","purple_custom_meta_purple_page_number":"14","purple_seq_number":"2","purple_custom_meta_purple_seq_number":"2","purple_source_article":"article_14-2.xml","purple_custom_meta_purple_source_article":"article_14-2.xml","purple_source_issue":"November-2021","purple_custom_meta_purple_source_issue":"November-2021","purple_external_id":"November-2021-14-2","purple_custom_meta_purple_external_id":"November-2021-14-2","purple_issue_code":"|0000086546||","purple_custom_meta_purple_issue_code":"|0000086546||","purple_android_product":"com.im.skyatnight.198","purple_custom_meta_purple_android_product":"com.im.skyatnight.198","purple_ios_product":"com.im.skyatnight.198","purple_custom_meta_purple_ios_product":"com.im.skyatnight.198","purple_web_product":"","purple_custom_meta_purple_web_product":"","purple_publication_id":"075fab74-0a21-4201-866a-899d6c41c40c","purple_migrated":"","kt_blocks_editor_width":""},"categories":[19],"tags":[14],"featured_image_src":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/77\/2021\/10\/2MH6G38BSPAV2J2L1YMWMS48VQ76.jpg","author_info":{"display_name":"importmanagerhub@sprylab.com","author_link":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcskyatnight\/author\/importmanagerhubsprylab-com\/"},"acf":{"readingTimeMinutes":"< 1","apple_news_title":""},"uagb_featured_image_src":{"full":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/77\/2021\/10\/2MH6G38BSPAV2J2L1YMWMS48VQ76.jpg",1881,1447,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/77\/2021\/10\/2MH6G38BSPAV2J2L1YMWMS48VQ76-150x150.jpg",150,150,true],"medium":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/77\/2021\/10\/2MH6G38BSPAV2J2L1YMWMS48VQ76-300x231.jpg",300,231,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/77\/2021\/10\/2MH6G38BSPAV2J2L1YMWMS48VQ76-768x591.jpg",768,591,true],"large":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/77\/2021\/10\/2MH6G38BSPAV2J2L1YMWMS48VQ76-1024x788.jpg",800,616,true],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/77\/2021\/10\/2MH6G38BSPAV2J2L1YMWMS48VQ76-1536x1182.jpg",1536,1182,true],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/77\/2021\/10\/2MH6G38BSPAV2J2L1YMWMS48VQ76.jpg",1881,1447,false]},"uagb_author_info":{"display_name":"importmanagerhub@sprylab.com","author_link":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcskyatnight\/author\/importmanagerhubsprylab-com\/"},"uagb_comment_info":0,"uagb_excerpt":"The mission will have five more flybys before entering orbit","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcskyatnight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25090"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcskyatnight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcskyatnight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcskyatnight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/24"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcskyatnight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=25090"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcskyatnight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25090\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":25853,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcskyatnight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25090\/revisions\/25853"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcskyatnight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/25511"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcskyatnight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=25090"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcskyatnight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=25090"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcskyatnight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=25090"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}