Check out these extraordinary new images of Mercury

At 6:59 a.m. Central On January 8, European time, the BepiColombo spacecraft successfully completed its sixth flyby of Mercury, the innermost planet in the solar system. This was a “gravity assist maneuver” that used Mercury’s gravity to change the course of the BepiColombo spacecraft, which will put it into orbit around the planet by the end of 2026.

BepiColombo is a joint mission between the European Space Agency (ESA) and the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) that will study Mercury’s composition. The vehicle, consisting of two probes – ESA’s Mercury Planetary Orbiter and JAXA’s Mercury Magnetospheric Orbiter – was launched in autumn 2018 and had previously orbited the sun.

As it approaches Mercury again, the vehicle will separate and the two probes will head to their respective polar orbits. BepiColombo’s scientific work is then planned for early 2027. The probes will then search for information about how the planet formed and whether some of its craters contain water in the form of ice.

Until then, we’ll have to make do with the details contained in these three images captured by the vehicle during its final flyby.