BepiColombo captures newly named Stoddart crater

The sunlit part of Mercury comes into view at the top right of this image, taken at 23:54 CEST on 4 September 2024 as the ESA/JAXA BepiColombo mission sped by for its fourth of six gravity assist manoeuvres at the planet. 

The image was captured by the Mercury Transfer Module’s monitoring camera 3 (M-CAM 3), when the spacecraft was about 555 km from the planet’s surface. The spacecraft’s closest approach of 165 km took place at 23:48 CEST. 

The surface of Mercury hosts many fascinating geological features. Of special note is the Stoddart peak ring basin: a mysterious 155-km wide impact crater that had no name, until last month. 

When the BepiColombo M-CAM team were planning for this flyby, they realised that this crater would be visible and decided it would be worth naming due to its potential interest for BepiColombo scientists in the future. 

Following a request from the M-CAM team, the ancient crater was recently assigned the name Stoddart by the International Astronomical Union’s Working Group for Planetary System Nomenclature, after Margaret Olrog Stoddart (1865–1934), an artist from New Zealand known for her flower paintings. 

The back of the Mercury Planetary Orbiter’s high-gain antenna and part of the spacecraft’s body are also visible in front of Mercury in this image. Mercury Planetary Orbiter is one of two orbiters that will separate from the carrier spacecraft following arrival in orbit around Mercury. 

North is to the upper left.

More about BepiColombo's fourth Mercury flyby

Click here for an annotated version of this image

[Image description: Planet Mercury in the background with its grey, cratered, pock-marked surface. In the foreground are some spacecraft parts]