Check out these extraordinary new pictures of Mercury

06:59 Central On January 8, European time, the BepiColombo spacecraft successfully completed its sixth flyby of Mercury, the innermost planet of the solar system. It was a “gravity maneuver” that uses Mercury’s gravity to alter the course of the BepiColombo vehicle, which will launch it into the planet’s orbit by the end of 2026.

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

When it approaches Mercury again, the vehicle will separate and the two probes will depart for their respective polar orbits. BepiColombo’s next science mission is scheduled for early 2027, when the probes will look for information on how the planet formed and whether some of its craters contain water ice.

Until then, we’ll have to make do with the details in these three images taken by the vehicle during its most recent flight.