Japan’s Mercury space probe Mio bids farewell to Earth in swing by
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Japan’s Mio space probe now en route to Mercury to study its origin and evolution took advantage of Earth’s gravity for a swing by to take a farewell photo of home.
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Photos showing it whizzing far above Earth were also taken on April 10.
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The probe, created and operated by the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA), is expected to enter Mercury’s orbit in December 2025.
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Mio had to drastically change in its flight path by coming to within 12,600 kilometers of Earth–about the same length as that of the planet’s diameter–at 1:30 p.m. Japan time.
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The University of Tokyo’s Kiso Observatory in Nagano Prefecture photographed Mio departing high above the southern sky just before 9 p.m. through its large telescope.
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It was the probe’s first and final swing by using Earth’s gravitational pull.
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Mio will make two more similar maneuvers around Venus and six around Mercury.
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JAXA launched the probe in October 2018, along with a European probe called MPO, as part of the Japan-Europe joint BepiColombo mission to research Mercury. The mission was named after an Italian astronomer.
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The probe has flown 1.4 billion kilometers of the total 9-billion-kilometer route of its 7-year voyage.
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Mio’s mission is to survey Mercury’s magnetic field and other conditions on the planet, which has an extremely harsh environment.
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As the closest planet to the sun, Mercury is exposed to strong plasma waves and its surface temperature measures up to 430 degrees.
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