Some of you probably like you could be onboard BepiColombo right now , as the space investigation whizzes far forth from satellite Earth .
The space vehicle fly by the Earth last Friday as part of a tactical maneuver to put it on course toward planet Mercury . Obviously , BepiColombo ’s scientists used the flyby as an opportunity to snap lots of images of Earth , because many people love Earth even more than they love Mercury — surprising , I know . Here ’s a video the European Space Agency made demo all 200 of those images .
As part of BepiColombo ’s journey , the investigation flew by the Earth , then will wing by Venus doubly and Mercury six times before settling into its final sphere . These flybys are also call gravity assist manoeuvre and are used to castrate a spacecraft ’s flight to allow for it to more easily insert itself into a specific orbit .
BepiColombo’s view of Earth on Friday, April 10.Screenshot: European Space Agency
Though these flybys are scheduled part of the mission , not everyone is always aware of them . In fact , this retiring Monday , the Minor Planet Center reported a new Near - Earth Object that they named 2020 GL2 . They deleted the objective when theyrealized that it was just the space vehicle .
BepiColombo launched on October 20 , 2018 and is schedule to come at Mercury in December 2025 . Scientists trust to get a line more about Mercury ’s composition , how it ’s evolve over clip , and its charismatic field and atmosphere .
What ’s so great about Mercury , you might ask?How presume you . Mercury is a mystery wind inside of an mystery . The planet generates its own internal magnetic landing field , like Earth does and unlike Venus and Mars . Its Department of the Interior consists mostly of a meat , but scientists are n’t certain why — it ’s possible that it was once a much larger satellite that lost its outer surface to a collision with another satellite , though evidence does n’t completely support this theory . It has ice , carbon , and maybe once hadthe factor for sprightliness , hidden in its cracks and craters . These are the mystery BepiColombo ’s scientists look for to unravel .
But perhaps most surprisingly , BepiColombo will add to a long legacy of using Mercury as a trial for Einstein ’s unbelievably successful hypothesis of gravity , called cosmopolitan Einstein’s theory of relativity . Mercury ’s orbit precesses , meaning the planet traces a kind ofspirographrather than an ellipse in its compass . The amount of precedence is more than predicted by Isaac Newton but is explicate by relativity dead . It was an early successful test for Einstein ’s theory . BepiColombo will be able to further appraise the major planet ’s area for offer an even higher - preciseness test .
So , goodbye BepiColombo , from all of us stuck here on Earth . undecomposed fortune on your journeying .
AstronomyScience
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