Today marks an exciting milestone for the BepiColombo mission, the joint endeavour between the European Space Agency (ESA) and the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA). After a remarkable seven year journey, the spacecraft successfully flew by the planet Mercury and triggered the release of an electron from an atom in its orbit. This is the first time that an artificial satellite has released an electron from the surface of a planet, and could lead to the development of new technologies and applications for space exploration. The successful flyby of Mercury is a major accomplishment in the mission’s ultimate goal of gathering data about the planet and its environment.

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source: Phys.org