BepiColombo First Mercury Fly-by: first taste of the mission results on investigation of the environment around the planet
Anna Milillo
(1)
,
Nicolas André
(2)
,
S. Barabash
(3)
,
Dominique Delcourt
(4)
,
Daniel Heyner
(5)
,
J. Huovelin
(6)
,
R. Moissl
(7)
,
M. Moncuquet
(8)
,
S. Orsini
(1)
,
Y. Saito
(9)
,
R. Vainio
(10)
,
A. Varsani
(11)
,
S. Aizawa
(2)
,
T. Alberti
(1)
,
W. Baumjohann
(11)
,
J. Benkhoff
(7)
,
L. Z. Hadid
(12)
,
M. Grande
(13)
,
L. Griton
(2)
,
L. Gunter
(14)
,
K. Issautier
(8)
,
H. Jeszenszky
(11)
,
Y. Kasaba
(15)
,
H. Lichtenegger
(11)
,
G. Murakami
(9)
,
H. Nilsson
(3)
,
J. Raines
(16)
,
B. Sanchez-Cano
(17)
,
J. Slavin
(16)
,
P. Wurz
(18)
,
J. Zender
(7)
,
A. Aronica
(1)
,
C.M. Carr
(19)
,
I. Dandouras
(2)
,
E. de Angelis
(1)
,
E. Esko
(20)
,
A. Fedorov
(2)
,
B. Fiethe
(5)
,
H. Fischer
(21)
,
D. Fontaine
(12)
,
M. Fraenz
(21)
,
C-H. Glassmeier
(5)
,
Y. Harada
(22)
,
R. Jarvinen
(20)
,
E. Kallio
(20)
,
T. Karlsson
(23)
,
B. Katra
(12)
,
A. Kazakov
(1)
,
H. Kojima
(24)
,
S. Korpela
(20)
,
N. Krupp
(21)
,
H. Krueger
(21)
,
François Leblanc
(25)
,
A. Lehtolainen
(20)
,
S. Livi
(26)
,
W. Magnes
(11)
,
V. Mangano
(1)
,
A. Matsuoka
(9)
,
W. Miyake
(27)
,
R. Nakamura
(11)
,
R. Noschese
(1)
,
P. Oleynik
(28)
,
A. Olivieri
(29)
,
M. Persson
(2)
,
M. Phillips
(26)
,
C. Plainaki
(29)
,
R. Rispoli
(1)
,
J.-A. Sauvaud
(2)
,
D. Schmid
(21)
,
R. Sordini
(1)
,
B. Trantham
(30)
,
C. Verdeil
(2)
,
N. Vertolli
(1)
,
S. Yagitani
(31)
,
I. Yoshikawa
(15)
,
S. Yokota
(32)
,
J.-E. Wahlund
(33)
,
M. Wieser
(3)
,
R. Wallner
(12)
1
IAPS -
Istituto di Astrofisica e Planetologia Spaziali - INAF
2 IRAP - Institut de recherche en astrophysique et planétologie
3 IRF - Swedish Institute of Space Physics [Kiruna]
4 LPC2E - Laboratoire de Physique et Chimie de l'Environnement et de l'Espace
5 Technische Universität Braunschweig = Technical University of Braunschweig [Braunschweig]
6 Department of Physics [Helsinki]
7 ESTEC - European Space Research and Technology Centre
8 LESIA - Laboratoire d'études spatiales et d'instrumentation en astrophysique = Laboratory of Space Studies and Instrumentation in Astrophysics
9 ISAS - Institute of Space and Astronautical Science
10 SRL - Space Research Laboratory [Turku]
11 IWF - Space Research Institute of Austrian Academy of Sciences
12 LPP - Laboratoire de Physique des Plasmas
13 University of Whales
14 IWF - Institut für Weltraumforschung = Space Research institute [Graz]
15 UTokyo - The University of Tokyo
16 CLaSP - Department of Climate and Space Sciences and Engineering
17 RSPP - Radio and Space Plasma Physics Group [Leicester]
18 Physikalisches Institut [Bern]
19 Imperial College London
20 Helsingin yliopisto = Helsingfors universitet = University of Helsinki
21 MPS - Max-Planck-Institut für Sonnensystemforschung = Max Planck Institute for Solar System Research
22 Kyushu University
23 KTH - KTH Royal Institute of Technology [Stockholm]
24 NiPR - National Institute of Polar Research [Tokyo]
25 HELIOS - LATMOS
26 SwRI - Southwest Research Institute [Boulder]
27 Tokai University
28 University of Turku
29 Italian Space Agency
30 SwRI - Southwest Research Institute [San Antonio]
31 KU - Kanazawa University
32 Osaka University [Osaka]
33 IRF - Swedish Institute of Space Physics [Uppsala / Kiruna]
2 IRAP - Institut de recherche en astrophysique et planétologie
3 IRF - Swedish Institute of Space Physics [Kiruna]
4 LPC2E - Laboratoire de Physique et Chimie de l'Environnement et de l'Espace
5 Technische Universität Braunschweig = Technical University of Braunschweig [Braunschweig]
6 Department of Physics [Helsinki]
7 ESTEC - European Space Research and Technology Centre
8 LESIA - Laboratoire d'études spatiales et d'instrumentation en astrophysique = Laboratory of Space Studies and Instrumentation in Astrophysics
9 ISAS - Institute of Space and Astronautical Science
10 SRL - Space Research Laboratory [Turku]
11 IWF - Space Research Institute of Austrian Academy of Sciences
12 LPP - Laboratoire de Physique des Plasmas
13 University of Whales
14 IWF - Institut für Weltraumforschung = Space Research institute [Graz]
15 UTokyo - The University of Tokyo
16 CLaSP - Department of Climate and Space Sciences and Engineering
17 RSPP - Radio and Space Plasma Physics Group [Leicester]
18 Physikalisches Institut [Bern]
19 Imperial College London
20 Helsingin yliopisto = Helsingfors universitet = University of Helsinki
21 MPS - Max-Planck-Institut für Sonnensystemforschung = Max Planck Institute for Solar System Research
22 Kyushu University
23 KTH - KTH Royal Institute of Technology [Stockholm]
24 NiPR - National Institute of Polar Research [Tokyo]
25 HELIOS - LATMOS
26 SwRI - Southwest Research Institute [Boulder]
27 Tokai University
28 University of Turku
29 Italian Space Agency
30 SwRI - Southwest Research Institute [San Antonio]
31 KU - Kanazawa University
32 Osaka University [Osaka]
33 IRF - Swedish Institute of Space Physics [Uppsala / Kiruna]
Nicolas André
- Fonction : Auteur
- PersonId : 178275
- IdHAL : andre-nicolas
- ORCID : 0000-0001-8017-5676
- IdRef : 170962911
S. Aizawa
- Fonction : Auteur
- PersonId : 792889
- IdHAL : sae-aizawa
- ORCID : 0000-0002-3483-3444
- IdRef : 245054596
L. Z. Hadid
- Fonction : Auteur
- PersonId : 184078
- IdHAL : lina-hadid
- ORCID : 0000-0002-8587-0202
- IdRef : 197200788
D. Fontaine
- Fonction : Auteur
- PersonId : 184074
- IdHAL : dominique-fontaine
François Leblanc
- Fonction : Auteur
- PersonId : 175354
- IdHAL : francois-leblanc69
- ORCID : 0000-0002-5548-3519
- IdRef : 223432296
S. Livi
- Fonction : Auteur
- PersonId : 735568
- IdHAL : sebastien-livi
- ORCID : 0000-0003-4959-982X
- IdRef : 156571293
Résumé
The ESA-JAXA BepiColombo satellite suite has passed by its target planet Mercury for the first time on 1st October 2021. The trajectory was in the southern hemisphere from nightside dusk toward dayside dawn, thus crossing the magnetosheath, the magnetotail, nightside plasma sheet and exiting in dayside dawnward magnetopause and bow shock. It explored, for the first time, regions never observed by other spacecraft in the past. All the instruments able to perform science observations in cruise configurations have been operated providing the first observations of Mercury’s inner southern magnetosphere and surrounding regions. These observations include magnetic fields, solar wind and magnetospheric ions and electrons in different energy ranges, plasma waves, energetic particles and exosphere. During the pass, BepiColombo encountered a low interplanetary magnetic field and low energy solar wind. Unexpected interesting signals have been observed in the solar wind before the magnetospheric bow shock, at the magnetopause inbound as well as in the outbound solar wind. This paper will present a general overview of the observations, just as a first taste of the great results expected from this mission.