These three images are of the BepiColombo spacecraft, following its launch last week. BepiColombo is

These three images are of the BepiColombo spacecraft, following its launch last week.

BepiColombo is a joint mission of the European Space Agency (ESA) and the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency. It’s on a mission to explore our Solar System’s innermost planet: Mercury.

According to the ESA: 

The mission will study all aspects of Mercury, from the structure and dynamics of its magnetosphere and how it interacts with the solar wind, to its internal structure with its large iron core, and the origin of the planet’s magnetic field. It will make global maps of the surface elemental and chemical composition and image features to better understand geological processes and how the surface has been modified over time by impact craters, tectonic activity, volcanism and polar ice deposits.

The trip is Europe’s first excursion to Mercury. BepiColombo launched Oct. 20 and will take seven years to get Mercury.

(Image Credit: ESA/BepiColombo/MTM –  CC BY-SA 3.0 IGO)