| Title: |
The third BepiColombo flyby to Mercury: ground based observation of the exosphere and in-situ measurements |
| Authors: |
Mangano, Valeria; Massetti, Stefano; del Moro, Dario; Di Bartolomeo, Pier Paolo; Milillo, Anna; Moroni, Martina; Orsini, Stefano; Leblanc, Francois; Heyner, Daniel; Varsani, Ali; Laky, Gunter; Saito, Yoshifumi; André, Nicolas; Rojo, Mathias; Aronica, Alessandro; Brin, Alessandro; de Angelis, Elisabetta; Kazakov, Adrian; Leto, Cristina; Plainaki, Christina |
| Contributors: |
Istituto di Astrofisica e Planetologia Spaziali - INAF (IAPS); Istituto Nazionale di Astrofisica Rome (INAF); Department of Physics Roma Tor Vergata; Università degli Studi di Roma Tor Vergata Roma, Italia = University of Rome Tor Vergata Rome, Italy = Université de Rome Tor Vergata Rome, Italie; SYSTEME SOLAIRE - LATMOS; Laboratoire Atmosphères, Observations Spatiales (LATMOS); Université de Versailles Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines (UVSQ)-Institut national des sciences de l'Univers (INSU - CNRS)-Sorbonne Université (SU)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)-Université de Versailles Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines (UVSQ)-Institut national des sciences de l'Univers (INSU - CNRS)-Sorbonne Université (SU)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS); Institut für Geophysik und Extraterrestrische Physik Braunschweig (IGEP); Technische Universität Braunschweig = Technical University of Braunschweig Braunschweig; Space Research Institute of Austrian Academy of Sciences (IWF); Austrian Academy of Sciences (OeAW); Institute of Space and Astronautical Science (ISAS); Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency Sagamihara (JAXA); Institut de recherche en astrophysique et planétologie (IRAP); Institut national des sciences de l'Univers (INSU - CNRS)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)-Université de Toulouse (EPE UT); Communauté d'universités et établissements de Toulouse (Comue de Toulouse)-Communauté d'universités et établissements de Toulouse (Comue de Toulouse); Agenzia Spaziale Italiana (ASI); Max-Planck-Institut für Sonnensystemforschung = Max Planck Institute for Solar System Research (MPS); Max-Planck-Gesellschaft |
| Source: |
EPSC-DPS Joint Meeting 2025 ; https://hal.science/hal-05281473 ; EPSC-DPS Joint Meeting 2025, Sep 2025, Helsinki, Finland. ⟨10.5194/epsc-dps2025-1067⟩ |
| Publisher Information: |
CCSD |
| Publication Year: |
2025 |
| Collection: |
Université de Versailles Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines: HAL-UVSQ |
| Subject Terms: |
[SDU]Sciences of the Universe [physics] |
| Subject Geographic: |
Helsinki; Finland |
| Description: |
International audience ; On 19 June 2023 the ESA-JAXA double spacecraft BepiColombo performed its third flyby around Mercury with a closest approach on the nightside at an altitude of 200 km above the surface and an almost equatorial trajectory that crossed the tail magnetosphere (Figure 1, left).During the days around the flybys many instruments onboard the spacecraft were operative to get new in-situ measurements of the planetary environment, providing data of magnetic field, of the solar wind and plasma, ions, electrons and neutral particles, radiation, dust particles.Also from the Earth, an observing campaign of Mercury was performed from the solar telescope THEMIS in the Canary Island of Tenerife, to detect the exospheric morphology and variability for the 5 days around the flyby. Thanks to the favourable orbital configuration (Figure 1, right), the good performances of the high resolution spectrograph MTR and of the specific characteristics of the solar telescope THEMIS and its adaptive optics, it is possible to observe Mercury during all the daytime, i.e. many hours/day.The high resolution spectrograph can image separately the two D emission lines at 5890-96 A of sodium, and a scanning system provide a full image of the planet in about 30 minutes. Sodium is a well-known exospheric component of Mercury, and it is well detectable also from the ground, thanks to the fact that its emission lies in a region free from telluric lines, and it is then able to provide a time series of sodium exospheric images to study its morphology and variability.The exosphere, that is neutral gaseous environment of the planet, is the result of many different interactions occurring between the outer space (solar wind particles and radiation, dust…) with the planetary surface, causing release of particles. The interplanetary magnetic field, interacting with the intrinsic planetary magnetic field, seems to be a primary driver of the two peculiar peaks of emission occurring at high latitude, often observed during ground based ... |
| Document Type: |
conference object |
| Language: |
English |
| DOI: |
10.5194/epsc-dps2025-1067 |
| Availability: |
https://hal.science/hal-05281473; https://hal.science/hal-05281473v1/document; https://hal.science/hal-05281473v1/file/EPSC-DPS2025-1067-print.pdf; https://doi.org/10.5194/epsc-dps2025-1067 |
| Rights: |
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/ ; info:eu-repo/semantics/OpenAccess |
| Accession Number: |
edsbas.F424CE74 |
| Database: |
BASE |