BepiColombo mission is about to arrive at Mercury!

It's a pretty nifty design: ESA's Mercury Planetary Orbiter (MPO) and JAXA's Mercury Magnetospheric Orbiter (Mio) are travelling to #Mercury as a compostive spacecraft, stacked on top of a transfer module. So separation & arrival will happen in stages.

▶️ esa.int/ESA_Multimedia/Images/…

Planetary science is a good reminder that science needs long-term planning and foresight. #BepiColombo was launched in 2018!

#astrodon #space #ESA #JAXA #VicisAstro

We are all stardust.

The oxygen you breath? That comes from dying massive stars, ending their life in a supernova.

The iron in your blood? Some from massive stars dying, but mainly fron white dwarfs, the leftovers of dwarf stars like our own Sun, exploding.

Carbon, the basis of life? Mostly from dying low mass stars.

The gold ring on your finger? Mostly from merging neutron stars, leftovers from supernovae.

#VicisAstro #astrodon #astronomy #astrophysics