On Sunday, 1 December 2024, BepiColombo successfully flew past planet Mercury for the fifth time. Bepi, Mio and MTM greeted the small planet from just 37 628 km away at 15:23 CET.

BepiColombo's cartoon characters Bepi, Mio and MTM correspond to ESA's Mercury Planetary Orbiter (shown in blue), JAXA's Mercury Magnetospheric Orbiter (red), and the Mercury Transfer Module (grey), respectively.

While flying past, Bepi used its infrared camera (called MERTIS) to take unusual pictures of the planet. Rather than showing what the surface looks like in normal visible light, MERTIS will reveal which parts of the surface are hotter than others, and hint at what kinds of minerals the surface is made of. In the coming week, we will reveal what Bepi's flyby image shows!

Mercury won't have to wait long until it can wave at the trio once again – their next visit will already happen at the start of the new year, on 8 January 2025.

Each time the trio passes by the planet, Mercury's gravitational pull changes their speed and direction. All of this prepares the spacecraft for late 2026, when over four months the three parts of the spacecraft will separate in turn, and Bepi and Mio will each settle into orbit around their planet friend.

Click here for an overview infographic of the flyby