Mercury reveals its Four Seasons (annotated)

This is one of a series of images featuring Mercury’s Vivaldi crater taken by the ESA/JAXA BepiColombo mission on 4 September 2024 as the spacecraft sped by for its fourth of six gravity assist manoeuvres at the planet. 

The image was taken at 23:53 CEST by the Mercury Transfer Module’s monitoring camera 2 (M-CAM 2), when the spacecraft was about 355 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 which the Vivaldi peak ring basin, named after the famous Italian composer Antonio Vivaldi (1678–1741), is one of the most spectacular. Vivaldi measures 210 km across, and because BepiColombo saw it so close to the sunrise line, its landscape is beautifully emphasised by shadow. 

Also in the image are the Mercury Planetary Orbiter’s medium gain antenna (top centre) and magnetometer boom (right). 

North is to the lower left. 

Read more about BepiColombo's fourth Mercury flyby

Click here for an unannotated version of this image

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