A spacecraft called BepiColumbo has conducted a flyby of the planet Mercury while on the way to ... Mercury.
Sadly the images are not particularly hi-res. That’s because the main science camera is packed away while BepiColumbo cruises through space.... [+]
its floor. Nearby, the Flaubert crater has a cluster of central peaks rather than the single central peak typical of somewhat smaller craters. Central peaks are a result of ‘elastic rebound’ of the target area when hit by a high-speed impactor. Data from BepiColombo’s orbital tour of Mercury will enable us to better understand impact cratering.
BepiColumbo is actually two orbiters; the European Space Agency Mercury Planetary Orbiter and the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency Mercury Magnetospheric Orbiter . They will study Mercury in-sync to give astronomers two data points on some projects.