Auroras on Mercury

July 22, 2023

During a close Mercury flyby, BepiColombo spacecraft collected data that showed how electrons raining down on the planet’s suface are triggering X-ray auroras.
BepiColombo is a joint mision by the European Space Agency (ESA) and the Japanese Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) to the planet Mercury.
The mission was named after Giuseppe “Bepi” Colombo, an Italian mathematician and engineer who made significant contributions to the understanding of Mercury’s orbit.
The BepiColombo spacecraft consists of two main components:
- Mercury Planetary Orbiter (MPO): The MPO is primarily provided by ESA and is responsible for mapping and studying Mercury’s surface, as well as its composition and topography.
- Mercury Magnetospheric Orbiter (MMO): The MMO is provided by JAXA and focuses on studying Mercury’s magnetic field and magnetosphere.
Auroras on Earth are triggered when a stream of charged particles emitted by the Sun interact with the ionosphere.
But Mercury has a very thin atmosphere (called an exosphere).
Auroras on the planet are created when solar wind, the stream of particles, interact directly with the planet’s surface.