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Fly over Mercury with BepiColombo for the final time during the mission’s epic expedition around the Sun. The ESA/JAXA spacecraft captured these images of the Solar System's smallest planet on 7 and 8 January 2025, before and during its sixth encounter with Mercury. This was its final planetary flyby until it enters orbit around the planet in late 2026.  

The video begins with BepiColombo's approach to Mercury, showing images taken by onboard monitoring cameras 1 and 2 (M-CAM 1 and M-CAM 2) between 16:59 CET on 7 January and 01:45 CET on 8 January. During this time, the

Los Angeles CA (SPX) Jan 14, 2025
The seventh flight test of SpaceX's Starship is scheduled to launch on Wednesday, January 15. This flight test will showcase a new iteration of Starship with substantial upgrades, marking its first payload deployment test, multiple reentry experiments, and both the launch and return of the Super Heavy booster. Among the upgrades to Starship's upper stage are redesigned forward flaps reloca

Sydney, Australia (SPX) Jan 13, 2025
Chinese scientists are working on an innovative idea suggested by elementary school students: designing a flag capable of fluttering on the moon despite its airless environment. At the Deep Space Exploration Laboratory (DSEL), researchers from Beijing and Anhui province are collaborating on a new payload for the Chang'e 7 mission. The concept, sparked by the creativity of students from Cha

New Delhi (SPX) Jan 13, 2025
Two Indian physicists have introduced a novel theoretical perspective that could reshape our understanding of the universe's composition and offer potential avenues to explore quantum gravity. Professor Pankaj Joshi of Ahmedabad University, India, and Professor Sudip Bhattacharyya of the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research (TIFR), have proposed that the gravitational collapse of matter in the

Paris, France (SPX) Jan 13, 2025
ispace-EUROPE S.A. (ispace-EUROPE), a Luxembourg-based leader in lunar exploration and space resource development, has achieved a significant milestone by obtaining the first mission authorization under Luxembourg's 2017 Space Resources Law. This authorization enables the operation of the TENACIOUS Micro Rover during the upcoming Mission 2 by ispace, inc., which is slated for launch no earlier t

Los Angeles CA (SPX) Jan 13, 2025
Radiation tests suggest that carbon-based organic solar cells could surpass traditional silicon and gallium arsenide cells in efficiency and durability for space applications, according to a University of Michigan study. Previous research primarily examined how radiation affected the energy conversion efficiency of organic solar cells. This new study delved into molecular-level changes tha

Tokyo, Japan (SPX) Jan 13, 2025
Researchers have completed the installation of a revolutionary "compound eye" instrument on the Subaru Telescope after years of meticulous effort. This cutting-edge device, known as the Prime Focus Spectrograph (PFS), incorporates approximately 2,400 prisms strategically arranged across the Subaru Telescope's expansive field of view. This design allows simultaneous spectroscopic analysis o

Tokyo, Japan (SPX) Jan 13, 2025
An international research team led by scientists from the National Astronomical Observatory of Japan has successfully detected emissions from various atomic transitions in a distant primordial galaxy. This discovery sets a new record for detecting elements from the farthest reaches of the universe, offering unprecedented insights into the earliest galaxies. "We pointed the more than forty

Paris, France (SPX) Jan 10, 2025
On January 8, 2025, the ESA/JAXA BepiColombo mission made its sixth flyby of Mercury, completing the final gravity assist needed to position itself for orbit insertion around the planet in late 2026. During this maneuver, the spacecraft flew just 295 kilometers above Mercury's night side before capturing stunning images of the sunlit northern regions. At 06:59 CET, BepiColombo passed over