Space probe flies by Venus on way to Mercury

A spacecraft bound for Mercury swung by Venus on October 15, 2020, using Earth’s neighbor to adjust its course on the way to solar system’s smallest and innermost planet. Launched almost two years ago, the European-Japanese probe BepiColombo took a black-and-white snapshot of Venus from a distance of 10,500 miles, with some of its own instruments in the frame. The fly-by is second of nine so-called planetary gravity assists that the spacecraft needs for its seven-year trip to Mercury. BepiColombo will make one more fly-by of Venus and six of Mercury itself to slow down before its arrival in 2025. Once there, the spacecraft will split into two, releasing a European orbiter nicknamed Bepi that will swoop into Mercury’s inner orbit while Mio, built by Japan, gathers data from a greater distance. Both probes are designed to cope with temperatures varying from 430 degrees Celsius on the side facing the sun, and -180 degrees Celsius in Mercury’s shadow. Researchers hope the BepiColombo mission will help them understand more about Mercury, which is slightly larger than Earth’s moon and has a massive iron ore.