BepiColombo spacecraft arrives at Mercury after eight-year journey

The BepiColombo spacecraft, carrying European and Japanese probes, arrives at Mercury on Thursday after an eight-year journey, facing high-risk maneuvers to study the Sun-scorched planet. The mission aims to release two probes into orbit around the smallest and least understood planet in our Solar System. The European Space Agency describes the arrival phase as its "most operationally challenging planetary arrival sequences ever attempted," due to Mercury's extreme proximity to the Sun and weak gravitational pull. The spacecraft traveled over 10 billion kilometers with nine flybys, and the probes will separate from the transfer module at 1200 GMT, with autonomous operations required due to a 30-minute communication delay. From April, the Mercury Planetary Orbiter will study the planet's surface from 480 km away, while the Japanese Mio probe will examine its magnetic field from up to 11,000 km. The mission, with a 1.7 billion-euro budget, follows NASA's Mariner 10 and MESSENGER probes, aiming to uncover mysteries about Mercury's magnetic field, iron core, and surface hollows.