The European Space Agency’s Solar Orbiter is on a mission to study the sun, but to get there it has to perform a series of flybys of other planets including Earth. This week, the Orbiter will perform its riskiest flyby, dipping through the smattering of space debris that surrounds Earth before whipping away toward the…
BepiColombo’s close Venus encounter Venus has been a hot spot in the solar system this week, as two different missions have captured footage of their flybys of the planet. Solar Orbiter, a joint project between NASA and the European Space Agency (ESA), as well as BepiColombo, a joint project between ESA and the Japan Aerospace…
Artist impression of Solar Orbiter during its second flyby of the planet. The spacecraft will make numerous gravity assist flybys at Venus to bring it closer to the sun and to tilt its orbit in order to observe our star from different perspectives. ESA/ATG medialab Mars might be the planet in our solar system that…