Europe approved the mission to explore Mercury

The European Space Agency's Science Program Committee (ESA) has just approved the mission of launching Europe's BepiColombo probe and Japan to Mercury.

BepiColombo will be launched in 2013 to get close to Mercury 6 years later. Mission year-long observation with the goal:

- Explain why Mercury has a higher density than other planets of the solar system,
- Determine why Mercury is in liquid or solid state
- Find out the presence of a strong magnetic field around Mercury, while Venus and Saturn are not available from this field
- Explain the absence of iron in spectral analyzes while this substance is considered the main component of Mercury.

Most of the information gathered from Venus was made by the Mariner 10 probe. Mariner 10 captured several pictures of Mercury in three flights near the planet in 1974 and 1975. One ship Another US probe, Messenger launched in 2004, will go into orbit around Mercury in 2011. This will be the first spacecraft to be put into orbit around Mercury.

(Photo: caen)