Why in the News?

On Thursday, the ESA-Japan spacecraft “BepiColombo” made its closest approach to Mercury, capturing detailed images of its sunrise-lit surface and revealing the planet’s south pole.

Highlights of the Latest Flyby:

- BepiColombo uses flybys of Earth, Venus, and Mercury to slow down and enter orbit around Mercury. This approach gives scientists new information about Mercury’s south pole and its unusual peak ring craters, which haven’t been studied much before.
Note: Flybys are close passes of a spacecraft near a planet or celestial body

	Details
Collaboration	European Space Agency (ESA) and Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA)
Launch Date	October 20, 2018 Expected to enter Mercury’s orbit by late 2026.
Launch Vehicle	Ariane 5 Rocket
Objectives	Study Mercury’s magnetic field Investigate surface composition and geology Analyze Mercury’s interaction with solar wind Study exosphere and geological history
Spacecraft Components	ESA’s Mercury Planetary Orbiter (MPO): Focus on surface and interior study JAXA’s Mercury Magnetospheric Orbiter (MIO): Focus on magnetic field and surrounding space
Planned Flybys	6 (Flybys of Earth, Venus, and Mercury) Ongoing, with 4 out of 6 Mercury flybys completed
Craters Studied	Vivaldi Crater, Stoddart Crater
Significance	Second mission ever to orbit Mercury (after NASA’s Messenger, 2004)
Challenges	Mercury’s proximity to the Sun accelerates spacecraft, requiring multiple flybys to slow down Thruster issues causing mission delay

[2008] What is the purpose of the US Space Agency’s Themis Mission, which was recently in the news?

(a) To study the possibility of life on Mars.

(b) To study the satellites of Saturn.

(d) To build a space laboratory to study the stellar explosions.