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BepiColombo’s MERTIS instrument made the first spacecraft observation of Mercury’s surface in mid-infrared light during a flyby on December 1, 2024. The partial view revealed thermal-infrared brightness variations across part of the Caloris Basin and a northern volcanic plain, including the known Bashō crater. It is a new kind of look at Mercury, not a completed global mineral map: the flyby image resolves features at roughly 26–30 kilometers, while the planned orbital survey is intended to reach about 500 meters.
What BepiColombo saw in infrared
The observation came from MERTIS, short for Mercury Radiometer and Thermal Infrared Spectrometer. Rather than recording sunlight reflected from the ground as a conventional camera does, MERTIS measured thermal emission: infrared radiation coming from Mercury’s sunlit surface.
The ESA image highlights a wavelength near 8.45 micrometers, within MERTIS’s approximately 7–14 micrometer range. It is presented as a greyscale brightness map over a topographic mosaic made from NASA’s MESSENGER mission data. Its light and dark patches are not ordinary colors, nor do they directly label different minerals.
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Regular gaps visible in the image are associated with MERTIS’s calibration cycle, according to ESA; they are not holes in Mercury’s terrain. The image and its wavelength description are available from ESA’s first mid-infrared observations image page.
Why infrared adds information visible images cannot
Visible-light images are useful for mapping color, reflectivity, shadows, craters, and plains. Mid-infrared observations add information about how the ground emits heat and about mineral vibrational signatures. MERTIS combines a thermal-infrared radiometer, which supports temperature-related measurements, with an imaging spectrometer intended to help identify surface materials.
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Brightness at a particular infrared wavelength can change with temperature, surface roughness, mineral composition, illumination, and viewing geometry. A bright patch therefore is not, by itself, proof of a particular mineral or a richer deposit. Scientists need calibration, thermal modeling, and comparisons with laboratory measurements of heated materials analogous to Mercury’s surface to separate those influences.
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Outbyte Driver Updater FREEScan for outdated or missing drivers - takes under a minuteDriver Scan →Outbyte PC Repair FREEClear out junk files and repair common Windows errorsFree Scan →During this specific flyby observation, MERTIS measured sunlit-side temperatures reaching about 420°C. That is an observation-specific measurement, not a universal maximum for Mercury’s surface. The planet’s changing illumination and extreme thermal environment make it especially important to distinguish temperature-driven brightness from compositional signals. ESA describes the instrument and observation in its account of BepiColombo’s new view of Mercury.
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The engineering workaround that made the flyby observation possible
BepiColombo was still in its stacked cruise configuration during the December 2024 encounter. Its three main elements—the ESA Mercury Planetary Orbiter (MPO), JAXA’s Mercury Magnetospheric Orbiter (Mio), and ESA’s Mercury Transfer Module (MTM)—had not separated. In that configuration, the opening MERTIS normally uses to look at a planet was blocked.
MERTIS also has a space-facing port used for calibration. Engineers reprogrammed the instrument to observe Mercury through that port during the flyby. The measurement was therefore a carefully adapted use of the instrument, rather than routine operation from its eventual observing position around the planet. BepiColombo is a joint ESA–JAXA mission; ESA’s mission overview describes its spacecraft and science goals.
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What the infrared view may help scientists investigate
Mercury presents a puzzle: it has an unusually large iron-nickel core, yet measurements of its surface indicate comparatively little iron. The surface is also unexpectedly dark, and MESSENGER found volatile elements in quantities that challenged simple accounts of how a planet so close to the Sun formed and evolved.
Thermal and spectral observations can help scientists compare volcanic plains, impact materials, and other terrain, while working out which contrasts come from composition and which from heating or roughness. That can improve understanding of how impacts alter the crust and how the planet’s surface relates to its interior. The flyby observation offers clues and a new measurement technique; it does not resolve those questions on its own.
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What this first view does—and does not—establish
- It is the first spacecraft observation of Mercury’s surface in mid-infrared light, as ESA characterizes it—not the first infrared-related measurement of Mercury by any instrument or observatory in the broadest sense.
- It is not the first image of Mercury. Mariner 10 and MESSENGER previously returned extensive observations in visible and other spectral ranges. BepiColombo is the third spacecraft mission to visit Mercury and is intended to become the second to orbit it; ESA’s mission factsheet provides mission context.
- It is not a complete global map or a definitive mineral identification. The flyby covered a limited region, and infrared brightness mixes thermal, roughness, and compositional effects.
- It is not a conventional color photograph. The displayed image represents infrared radiance, overlaid on a topographic base.
- It is not the close-up imagery from BepiColombo’s later sixth flyby. That separate encounter took place on January 8, 2025, passed about 295 kilometers above the surface, and produced visible-light monitoring-camera images. See ESA’s sixth-flyby image report.
When the orbital survey is expected
The flyby was a preview of what MERTIS is meant to do from orbit. ESA says the planned global mineralogical mapping could reach resolutions down to roughly 500 meters—far finer than the flyby view—alongside thermal measurements. BepiColombo’s broader investigation is also designed to study Mercury’s surface and interior, polar deposits and permanently shadowed craters, magnetic field and magnetosphere, thin exosphere, volatile elements, surface alteration, and enigmatic hollows.
As of August 18, 2026, the spacecraft was still en route. ESA reported that solar-electric propulsion ended on June 15, 2026; that was a mission-phase milestone, not Mercury arrival. The published schedule is:
| Milestone | Scheduled date or period |
|---|---|
| Mercury Transfer Module separation | September 3, 2026 |
| Mercury orbit insertion | November 21, 2026 |
| MPO and Mio separation | December 9–10, 2026 |
| Routine science operations | 2027; ESA’s factsheet lists April, while its overview describes operations beginning in early 2027 |
These are separate steps: insertion into Mercury orbit does not itself mean that the orbiters have separated, completed commissioning, or begun routine science. The schedule is subject to mission updates. See ESA’s June 2026 arrival-phase update, factsheet, and mission overview.
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