Here's what scientists heard when Mercury-bound BepiColombo flew past Earth
By Gemma Lavender 4 hours ago
Listen to the sounds of our planet as the spacecraft gears up for its close approach of the solar system's innermost world.
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BepiColombo captured five eerie recordings as it whizzed past Earth at a speed of 2.159 miles (3.474 kilometers) per second, according to a statement from the European Space Agency (ESA) on May 5.
The European-Japanese mission's flyby on April 10, the first of nine gravity-assist maneuvers, helped to tighten the spacecraft's trajectory around the sun, slingshotting it onto an orbit that will bring it closer to its destination: Mercury — the smallest and least explored planet in the solar system.
According to ESA, BepiColombo will provide the best understanding of Mercury to date. The mission consists of two orbiters: the Mercury Planetary Orbiter (MPO), tasked with mapping the planet's surface, and the Mercury Magnetospheric Orbiter (MMO), which will get a better look at the planet's magnetosphere — the magnetic bubble generated by a planet that shields its surface from solar and cosmic radiation.
An artist's depiction of the BepiColombo spacecraft flying past Earth. (Image credit: ESA/ATG medialab)
The craft used two out of a suite of 11 instruments on board the MPO — the Italian Spring Accelerometer (ISA) and its magnetometer (MPO-MAG) — while the craft began a sequence of passes. The probe made a close approach to Earth, slipping into our planet's shadow and listening closely to the Earth's magnetic field before finally speeding out of our planet's influence.
More:
https://www.space.com/bepicolombo-earth-flyby-sounds.html
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