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Spacecraft uses gravity to slow down, takes first image of Mercury

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Spacecraft uses gravity to slow down, takes first image of Mercury

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The European Space Agency (ESA) partnered with the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency has achieved the first fly-by with its BepioColombo mission.

Spacecraft uses gravity to slow down, takes first image of Mercury 01 | TweakTown.com

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The European Space Agency explained that the spacecraft completed its first flyby of Mercury on Friday at 11.34 pm GMT. The spacecraft used the planet’s gravity to slow down, passing at altitudes of less than 125 miles from the surface. During its fly-by, the spacecraft snapped an image of the planet, and according to the ESA, the image showcases Mercury’s Northern Hemisphere as well as the 103-mile-wide Lermontov crater.

The BepiColombo mission was launched back in 2018, and up until now, the spacecraft traveled once past Earth and twice past Venus on its way to Mercury. The ESA explained that five more fly-by’s of Mercury are needed before the spacecraft can release ESA’s Mercury Planetary Orbiter and JAXA’s Mercury Magnetospheric Orbiter. These two probes will relay data back to researchers about Mercury’s magnetic sphere and core.

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Jak joined the TweakTown team in 2017 and has since reviewed 100s of new tech products and kept us informed daily on the latest news. Jak’s love for technology, and, more specifically, PC gaming, began at 10 years old. It was the day his dad showed him how to play Age of Empires on an old Compaq PC. Ever since that day, Jak fell in love with games and the progression of the technology industry in all its forms. Instead of typical FPS, Jak holds a very special spot in his heart for RTS games.

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