This close-up photograph of Venus was taken by the BepiColombo spacecraft as it passed through on August 10. It was using Venus as a gravity aid on its journey to Mercury. It was one of two spacecraft that flew by Mercury this week. The other being Solar Orbiter which flew by yesterday.AdvertisementBepiColombo is a joint mission by the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency and European Space Agency. It is made up of two orbiters attached: the Mercury Magnetospheric Orbiter (attached) and the Mercury Planetary Orbiter (attached). The first will map the planet in great detail and the second will study its magnetic field. The spacecraft had to launch itself around Venus in order to make this happen. Lucky coincidence: Solar Orbiter was also nearby, providing scientists with a rare observation opportunity. We are still waiting to hear about the Solar Orbiters' flyby yesterday.According to an ESA release, this image of a looming Venus was captured by BepiColombo at 977 miles from Earth. The image was captured by the Mercury Transfer Module's third monitoring camera. The image was lightly processed to increase the contrast. It includes the Mercury Planetary Orbiters antenna as well as a part of BepiColombos' body.This was BepiColombo's second gravity assistance of Venus, and the third of nine flybys that the spacecraft is expected to make as it gets closer to Mercury. BepiColombo's closest approach to Venus today was just 350 miles above its surface. This is a very close result, especially when compared to Solar Orbiter which reached about 5,000 miles yesterday according to the ESA.Future flybys by BepiColombo will be of Mercury, which will slow down the spacecraft enough to reach the orbits of the planets. The first one is scheduled for October.More: Next week will see rare back-to-back flybys of Venus
