Saraswathy Cluster by Indian Scientists

Saraswathy Cluster discovered by Indian Astronomers

Indian Astronomers have made a significant discovery by identifying extremely large superstar cluster known as Saraswathy cluster which is located in the direction of Constellation Pisces.

This Supercluster is located about 4 billion light years away from our Earth and consists of nearly 43 large galaxies. Indian astronomers named this super-cluster galaxy as "Saraswathy". Scientists predict that this galaxy may have mass equivalent to 20 million billion Suns.

What is Super-Cluster?

     A supercluster is chain of galaxy and a galaxy approximately consisting of ten thousand galaxies and this saraswathy cluster is about 600 million light years stretched over the universe

Discovery:

     This discovery was made by Indian Astronomers from Inter University Centre for Astronomy and Astrophysics (IUCAA) and the Indian Institute of Science Education and Research (IISER) and two other members of Indian Universities. 

Published Journal:

     This amazing discovery is being published in latest isssue of The Astrophysical Journal, the premier research journal of American Astronomical Society.

About Saraswathy Cluster:

     The long cold and dark matter model predict the evolution of the Universe by assembly of all the small structures of galaxies. Most forms of this model do not predict the existence of large structures such as the Saraswathy Cluster with the current age of the universe. The discovery of this super mass cluster force astronomers to think about the evolution and current stage of the universe starting from Big-bang to current stage.

     The supercluster is clearly embedded in a large network of cosmic filaments traced by clusters and large voids. Previously only some of few clusters have been reported. An example for the previously reported cluster is known as Shapley concentration or Sloan Great wall in the nearby universe. From these Saraswathy is most distant one and far too.This research will help to find answers for the unanswered question about the universe of past, when the mysterious dark energy had just started to dominate structure formation. 

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Libya Montes on Mars

Libya Montes on Mars Image Credit: ESA

The colour coded image of highland terrain Lybia Montes on Mars. The coloured image shows various depths and heights of the terrain. Image was taken by ESA's Mars Express (orbiter around Mars) on 21 February 2017.

Colour Code Indicating various heights..

• Red - highest terrain
• Blue - lowest terrain
• Purple - lowest terrain

Libya Montes Image by NASA

About Libya Montes:

      Libya Montes is a highland terrain on Mars which uplifted by a giant Isidis imapact, this spot was once chosen for the landing site of Mars Surveyor 2001 Lander in 1999. This site has oldest rocks on Mars ever and it can provide lots of information about early life and early condition of Mars.After the Isidis impact, it formed by various processes like wind action, surface run-off, fluvial deposits.

Image Details:

Title                            :  Libya Montes Topography

Released date           : 13/07/2017 at 11:00 am

Image ID                     : 380974

Copyright                   : ESA/DLR/Berlin

Image Credit              : European Space Agency
Second Image credit : NASA

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Space Cloud W51

Space Cloud W51

      Chandra X-Ray Space Observatory has spotted a space gas molecular cloud which was named as W51 cloud and it is very closest to our earth. It is something about 17,000 light years far away from us. Its image provides excellent opportunity to study the forming of stars in our Milkyway Galaxy.

Image shows high energy stellar output. The above image is captured after a exposure about 20 hours using chandra x-ray. Similarly Spitzer space telescope also took infrared image of this cloud.The cloud was mostly surrounded by cool materials and vast gas molecules of hydrogen and helium, it may have more gases which stretched over the space.This image cloud consists of million of new stars.

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Juno Flyby near Red Spot of Jupiter

Great Red Spot of Jupiter. Image taken by Cassini Spacecraft 

National Aeronautics Space Administration (NASA) Juno Spacecraft flied over Jupiter's great Red Spot on 10 July 2017. The above image was taken with Cassini's Narrow Wide Angle Camera on 29 December 2000. Red spot of Jupiter is one of the interesting feature of planet Jupiter to observe.

Robert Hooke and Giovanni Cassini in 17th century discovered the red spot of Jupiter and they suggested that the spot had been existing since four centuries and have persisted for a long period.Scientists suggest that the red spot has been shrinking. In 1979 Voyager spacecraft measured the diameter of red spot was 25000 km, but the modern Hubble Space Telescope image reveals that the red spot is shrunken to 15000 km. The red spot is very cold but have warm cyclone. The cyclone is almost equals to hurricane in our Earth` The reason for the redness of spot is still a mystery. Cyclones mostly consist of inert gases like Hydrogen and Helium. We can find many lightning storms like auroras in the poles.

For More information on Juno is available at https://www.nasa.gov/juno or https://www.missionjuno.org/

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Hubble Hidden Galaxy

Hidden Galaxy Image captured by Hubble Space Telescope

     IC 342 Cluster is a hidden galaxy because it is difficult to see and image. This star cluster or galaxy is located near the equator of our Milkyway galaxy. This cluster has bright glowing gases, brightest stars and dust around it.The galaxy was very much active which wass indicated by colours of stars. Blue colour of stars shows the birth of new stars,red coloured stars shows the hotter stars and some darker regions. In the above image it looks like the brightest galaxy is covered with dark blanket around galaxy. Hubble Astronomers confirmed this core to has specific central region known as Hll nucleus. It mostly consists of ionized hydrogen which is likely to be creating many new stars.

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Hubble Spotted Clumps of New Stars

Clumps of New Star | Image Credit : NASA Hubble Space Telescope

     This image reveals the formation of new stars in galaxy which are spinning each other at a distance of 200 to 300 light year away from Earth. Hubble Space Telescope team were trying to understand the formation of universe with its galaxies and planets. The study of Evolution of universe is a mystery, but still scientists ding their best to understand since decades. Hubble images make the galaxy to shrink to a small size due to its far distance. Shrinking of images hide much details about sky objects. The above image is filtered with modern technologies to achieve image at a greater resolution and this image is 10 times better image than hubble can't achieve itself.

Gravitational lens are very much useful in this case or anything like this. Scientists predict that this galaxy had formed 2.7 billion years after the big bang. Other telescopes will image the red stars like James Webb space telescope, Spitzer Space Telescope, Kepler Space Telescope and some ground based observatories. Ground based observatories do not have imaging capability at such a distance defeating the bad weather.

The image of this clumps of new stars was taken and processed with several technologies and the distortion of gravitational lens was removed with programming codes.

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India's GSAT-17 Successfully Launched

GSAT-17 Indian Communication Satellite

GeoStationary Satellite GSAT-17 India's communication satellite successfully launched on 29 June 2017 from Kourou, French Guiana Space Center by Ariane - V238 Rocket. It weighted 3477 kilogram on lift-off and have some payloads,

Special Instruments:

• C- Band
• Extended C - Band
• S - Band
• Meteorological Data Relay

Meteorological data relay for weather and rescue purposes during natural disasters. After successful injection into Geostationary Transfer Orbit, GSAT-17 was fully controlled by Mastet Control Facility at Hassan. This sat will be maneuvered for its position from this center. GSAT-17 was expected to be active for next 15 years ( lifespan).

References:-

• Insat/ Gsat Brochure
• Gsat-17 official webpage

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New Horizons to a New Flyby to MU69 Object

 NASA's New Horizon targets to a next flyby on 1 January 2019 beyond dwarf planet Pluto. It will reach Kupier Belt after successful flyby around Pluto.Horizons aimed to perform flyby around most smallest object in the Kupier Belt which was called MU69. Ground based occultation estimated that the diameter of MU69 will be 20 to 40 kilometer after the discovery of Kupier Belt Objects in 2014.

MU69 occultation will occur on July 10 and 17 July. On 10 July 2017, Nasa's Airborne Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy SOFIA will use its 100 inch powerful telescope to probe the space debris around MU69 object in the Kupier Belt.

On 17 July 2017, Nasa's Hubble Space Telescope will check for the debris around the object MU69 in the same kupier belt. And other than this ground based small fencing telescopes will also check for the debris.

References:

• 10 July 2017 Occultation.
• 17 July 2017 Occultation.
• MU69 Occultation.

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Successful test of Scramjet Engine

Scramjet - Air Breathing Propulsion System. Indian Space Research Organisation successfully tested its experimental launch of air breathing ticket "Scramjet Engine" on 28th August 2016 from Satish Dhawan Space Centre in Sriharikotta. The fight duration was 300 seconds, after its flight it reached Bay of Bengal nearly 320 km from Sriharikotta. It was successfully tracked and recovered during its first flight. Air Breathing Propulsion, holding flame at supersonic speed, ignition of engines, air injection mechanism and fuel intake process was successfully demonstrated by scientists of ISRO.

This engine was designed in such a way, so that it uses Hydrogen as fuel and atmospheric oxygen as oxidizer. This engine get design from ISRO Advanced  Technology Vehicle. This is a short duration experimental launch of Scramjet on March 6. It weighted 3277 kilogram while lift-off.

Tags: SLV, ASLV, PSLV, GSLV, GSLV MARK-II, GSLV-MARK-III

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Viking-2-Orbiter

Viking-2 Orbiter (One of the mission of Viking Program)

    Viking-2 Orbiter is a part of Viking Program and similar to Viking-1-Program  sent to Mars.This mission consist of a Orbiter and a Lander. It was the second landing on the surface of Mars.Viking-2 was launched on 9 September 1975 carried by Titan IIIE Rocket with a launch mass of 1455 kilogram.

MISSION OVERVIEW:

     Viking-2 Orbiter started to beam images of Mars after the successful orbital insertion on 7 August 1976. The lander separated from the orbiter on 3 September 1976 and landed at Utopia Planitia.

RESULTS OF VIKING-2 MISSION:

ORBITER:

• It created an idea for Huge water on Mars
• River Valleys were found in many areas on the surface of Mars
• It discovered flow of water in carved deep valleys, eroded grooves, cracks of bed-rock
• It found Ravi Vallis which formed from catastropic floods came from ground.

LANDER:

• After analysing soil it found the presence of magnesium, aluminium, sulphur, calcium, titanium, strontium and yttrium.
• These minerals were the products of Igneous rocks 
• VIKING-2 BIOLOGICAL EXPERIMENT: It consist of instruments like
• Pyrolytic Release Experiment
• Labeled Release Experiment
• Gas Exchange Experiment
• Gas Chromatograph 
• Mass Spectrometer

• Scientists found that Viking Program gave positive results to the search of life, but still it is not confirmed

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Hubble Space Telescope

Hubble Space Telescope to Observe night sky objects from the Space

     Hubble Space Telescope is a American (National Aeronautics Space Administration) space telescope launched into space to observe night sky objects which are invisible from our Earth telescopes. The most largest and versatile among all telescopes is Hubble Space Telescope. Nowadays Hubble plays a major role and a powerful scientific tool for Astronomers in the field of Research and discoveries. Since its launch from 1990 it had made millions of discoveries like Galaxies, Stars, Dual Stars, Gas Nebulae, Exoplanets, Comets, Star clusters, Supernovas, Active Black Holes producing a good quality and high resolution images on computer screen. It helps astronomers to understand the phenomenon and evolution of universe easily.

TELESCOPE IN SPACE:

     On 24th April 1990 NASA's Hubble Space Telescope was parked into Low Earth orbit, which was carried by Space Shuttle Discovery from Kennedy Space Center of Florida. It took Eight years to construct and complete the Hubble project starting from 1977 to 1985. Hubble was named in the honour of a famous Astronomer Edwin Hubble.

PROPERTIES OF TELESCOPE:

     The telescope basically consist of a mirror reflector of 2.4 meter and imaging instrument which will give astronomers a clear and magnificent view of Universe with greater resolution in the presence of visible, infrared and ultraviolet light. It orbits Earth at a distance of 568 kilometers from Earth.The total cost to complete the Hubble project was $1.5 billion dollars. It has mind-blowing feature to image (Deep Field Image) the sky objects to a distance of 13 billion light years away from our Earth which is impossible to imagine and image through ground based telescopes. 

HUBBLE SPACE TELESCOPE'S INTERESTING FACTS:

•  Hubble Astronomers have published nearly 14,000 scientific papers after 1.3 million observations since its year of launch1990.
• Hubble uses Spinning wheels to change its position by applying Newton's Thrid Law instead of using thrusters
• Hubble has an accuracy point of 0.007 arc seconds and can see objects with an angular size of 0.05 arc seconds.
• It can image and locate objects to a far of more than 13.4 billion light years away from our Earth.
• It had archived more than 140 Terabytes of data by generating 10 Terabytes of New data per year.

 TECHNICAL DETAILS:

• Hubble Telescope has 1.25 MHz DF-224 Processor CPU, it intel based 80486 processor.
• It has Multiple Access Transponder components MAT-1 and MAT-2
• The wide-field camera uses RCA 1802 microprocessor.

INITIAL INSTRUMENTS:

• Planetary Camera
• Goddard High Resolution Spectrograph
• High Speed Photometer
• Faint Object Camera
• Faint Object Spectrograph

HUBBLE INSTRUMENTS:

• Advanced Camera for Surveys
• Cosmic Origins Spectrograph
• Corrective Optics Space Telescope Axial Replacement
• Faint Object Camera
• Faint Object Spectrograph
• Fine Guidance Sensor
• Goddard High Resolution Spectrograph
• High Speed Photometer
• Near Infrared Camera
• Multiple-Object Spectrometer
• Space Telescope Imaging Spectrograph
• Wide Field and Planetary Camera
• Wide Field and Planetary Camera 2
• Wide Field Camera 3

SERVICING MISSIONS:

• Servicing Mission-1 - STS-61 December 1993
• Seven Astronaut in Endeavour replaced High Speed Photometer with COSTAR
• Wide Field Planetary Camera was replaced with Wide Field and Planetary Camera 2
• Solar arrays and electronic components was replaced
• Four Gyroscopes was also replaced and the onboard computers were upgraded to coprocessors  

•  Servicing Mission-2 - STS-82 February 1997
• STIS and NICMOS was replaced and a New Solid State Recorder was mounted

• Servicing Mission-3A - STS-103 December 1999
• Four new gyroscopes were replaced with Fine Guidance Sensor and new computer systems were upgraded with more memory.
• Voltage/Temperature Improvement Kit was replaced with Thermal Insulation Blankets.

• Servicing Mission-3B - STS-109 March 2002
• Fine Guidance Sensors was replaced by the Advanced Camera for Surveys
• Solar panels was replaced for the second time for more power

• Servicing Mission-4 - STS-125 May 2009
•  New Nickel-Hydrogen Battery was installed and also Wide Field Camera 3 and Cosmic Origins Spectrograph

DISCOVERIES:

Eagle Nebulae Image Captured in 2014

Hubble Studies New Frontier's Program

Pismis 24 Star Cluster

Carina Nebulae

 

Hubble Detecting Early Universe with Various Space Telescope and Ground based telescope

FURTHER REFERENCES:

• Hubble Essentials
• Nuts and Bolts
• Hubble Highlights
• Hubble Wesite 

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Niagara-Falls of Mars

 Nasa's Mars Reconnaissance orbiter image shows the signs of flowing lava which looks like Niagara Falls. This lava flows from north-east. This lava flows from a 30 kilometer diameter volcano located in the Theresis volcanic province. 

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Mangalyaan Completes 1000 Days in Orbit

Mangalyaan Spacecraft around Mars

     Mars Orbiter Mission (MOM), Mangalyaan - the first successful interplanetary mission of India was launched on 5 November 2013 and it was carried by Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV-C25). It was successfully inserted into Martian orbit on 24 September 2014 in its first attempt. Mangalyaan completes 1000 Earth days in its orbit on 19 June 2017. 1000 Earth days is equal to 973.24 Martian Solar days and completed 388 orbits around Mars.

ISRO has announced opportunity for the researchers to use data of Mangalyaan for research and analysis. First year data of Mars Orbiter Mission was released on 24 September 2016 through ISSDC Website. This website has 1381 registered users and 370 GB data has been downloaded by users. Mars Colour Camera (MCC) one of the onboard payloads has produced 715 images and Mars Atlas was prepared and made available on ISRO official website.

Downloads:

•  Mars Atlas prepared by Mars Colour Camera (MCC)
• Download MOM data by Registering on ISSDC website

Image Credit : Indian Space Research Organisation
Text Credit    :  ISRO 

Tags: Mangalyaan New Updates 2017 Video | Mangalyaan 2 Proposal ISRO Video | Mangalyaan-India on Mars Video | MOM Payload - Mars Colour Camera

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Starbursts in Virgo Constellation

     Nowadays formation and evolution of galaxies are still not understood properly, this galaxies are called Starburst Galaxy. 

What is starburst Galaxy?

     Starburst galaxy have a region where most of the stars form at a breakneck rate and the galaxy is eating up the regular supply at a faster rate, that can be replenished.

Which galaxy is suitable for this type of Galaxy?

     NGC 4536 is such type of galaxy captured in the above image by Wide Field Camera of Hubble Space Telescope. It is located about 50 million light years away from Earth in the Constellation Virgo. It is a hub of extreme star formation. 

How the gases give birth to a new star?

     There are several factors that lead to ideal environment in which star formation can happen at a faster rate with massive and regular supply of gas. Galaxies having lots of gases passes nearby and collide with huge forces. This force forces the gases into a relatively small place to give birth to a new star.

Can the birth of star is predictable?

    Yes, the birth of star is predicatable. Star formation leaves many fingerprints. Nowadays Astronomers were able to predict where are the gas rich galaxies? where the star will born? Life span of stars? Technology development made easy to predict many astronomical events in our dark universe.

NGC 4536 Galaxy's Star-neck region.    Image Credit: Hubble, NASA, ESA

 Tags: Galaxy Cluster, Kepler Catalog, Colored Clouds of Jupiter, Top 10 Discoveries of MAVEN at Mars, Energetic Black Holes, Magellanic Nebulae, Spirograph-Spiral Gas Nebulae.

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Hubble to Capture galaxy with Gravitational Lens

Hubble Space Telescope shows fast-spinning disk shaped galaxy

     Hubble Space Telescope uses Gravitational Lens to Capture fast spinning Disk Galaxy. Gravity of a massive galaxy cluster MACS J2129-0741 brightens and magnifies the far distant galaxy in the background galaxy MACS2129-1 in the upper right corner of the image. Astronomers of NASA have made a amazing discovery of fast spinning disk shaped galaxy using power of natural lens of Hubble Space Telescope. These galaxy were called dead galaxies. Because they stopped forming stars before few billion years ago.

Image Credit: NASA, ESA

Tags:  Spirograph IC418 Nebulae, Energetic Black Holes, R-136 Cluster of Magellanic Nebulae

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New Catalog of Exoplanets by Kepler Space Telescope

     Team of NASA's Kepler Space Telescope team has released a catalog containing 219 new planets, 10 of which are Earth seized orbiting the star in the habitable zone.This is a detailed catalog containing many exoplanets outside our solar system. It is also a final spacecraft view of constellation Cygnus.

NASA's Exoplanet Archive contains 4,034 planets identified by Kepler Space Telescope and 2,335 planets are verified exoplanets. 50 planets were lie in the habitable zone. One of the most amazing discovery of Kepler Space Telescope is TRAPPIST-1 system and its seven Earth seized planets.

Assemble Line of Exoplanets discovered by Kepler Space Telescope

Exoplanet Missions of NASA

Exoplanet Populations Chart

Kepler New Planet Candidates

Planets which lie in the Habitable Zone by Kepler Space Telescope of NASA

 Image Credit : Kepler Space Telescope
Catalog Credit: NASA Kepler Team

More Information on Kepler Catalog release at Kepler Catalog Release

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Colored Clouds of Jupiter

     NASA's Juno Jupiter Spacecraft was moving away from Jupiter following its seventh close pass. JunoCam imaged this on 19 May 2017 from about 29,100 miles above the cloud tops.

     The Images shows variety in Jupiter's Stormy atmosphere. The result is a surreal world of vibrant color, clarity and contrast. Four of the Oval white storms is known as String of Pearls. These storms are visible near the top of the image. There is one more orange-colored storm can be seen at the belt-zone, while other storms are cream color.

More Information of Juno at NASA Juno Mission

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Cyclone in Jupiter

 Jupiter's Polar cyclones producing auroras, this image was taken by Juno spacecraft of NASA. Juno was sent to study Jupiter's atmosphere, auroras, storms, and both poles. It takes a long time to carry a research on Jupiter. Juno entered Jupiter's orbit on 4 July 2016, and the primary aim is understand the evolution of Jupiter and the reason for the strong magnetic field. It continuously monitors the polar storms in polar regions. It makes a close flyby once in every 53 days.The next close flyby is on 11 July 2017, and it will fly across most iconic features in our entire solar system. Image Shows that, the cyclones have been formed by the large ammonia gas moving and crashing each other. Glowing North Pole of Jupiter is looking like bright Auroras.

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Hubble's Spirograph IC418 Nebulae

IC 418 Nebulae from Hubble Space Telescope

     A Hubble Image showing planetary nebula IC 418 glows like multifaceted jewel. It lies about 2000 light years away from our Earth in the constellation Lepus. This planetary nebula indicates the final stage of Star Evolution similar to our Sun. The center of the Star was red before few billion years ago, but now expanded to a diameter of 0.1 light-year. The stellar remnant at the center is hot core from which ultraviolet radiation flows from center to surrounding gas.

Over few thousands year, the nebula will gradually disperse into space, and the star will cool and fade away to become a white dwarf. Our Sun will undergo same procedure after next 5 million years.This image is filtered with several color filters. Red shows emission of Nitrogen, Green shows emission of Hydrogen, Blue shows emission of Ionized Oxygen. 

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Top 10 Discoveries of MAVEN

     MAVEN is an American Spacecraft which was launched in 2013 and inserted into Martian Orbit on September 2014. Since its launch it have been exploring Mars Upper atmosphere. MAVEN has made wonderful discoveries of upper atmosphere of Mars, NASA celebrated its 1000 days of orbit around Mars on 17 June 2017. Top 10 discoveries of MAVEN were

• Imaging Showed that distribution of Nitric Oxide and Ozone in the upper atmosphere which shows Complex behavior and indicates that exchange of gases takes place between upper and lower atmosphere.
• Particles from Solar Wind unexpectedly penetrate into upper atmosphere instead of diverted by planet's ionosphere. This particles react with charged particles in ionosphere and convert into neutral atoms that are able to penetrate deeply.
• MAVEN detected the first observations Metal ion layer in the Martian ionosphere.
• It identified Two new types of auroras which are named "Diffuse" and "Proton" aurora. These auroras are not similar to auroras in our Earth.
• These aurorae are caused by influx of Solar particles ejected by various types of Solar Storms.
• The interactions between Solar wind and planet are Complex. This results in the lack of intrinsic Martian Magnetic field and occurrence of small Magnetized crust that can affect incoming solar wind on local scales.
• MAVEN observed seasonal variations of Hydrogen atoms in upper atmosphere by a factor of 10 throughout whole year. The source of Hydrogen is water present in the lower atmosphere that are broken down into Hydrogen and Oxygen by Sunlight.
• It also used of isotopes in upper atmosphere and suggested that 2/3 or more gases has been lost to space.
• MAVEN has measured the rate of stripping gases from top of atmosphere to space along with the process of removal and revealed that large amount of gas have lost to space.
• The Mars atmosphere has been stripped away by the Sun and the Solar Wind. This results in the change of climate from warm to wet environment, early in History to cold and dry climate that we see today.

Credit: MAVEN Team, NASA and Goddard Space Flight Center.

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Kosmos 419

Kosmos 419 was also known as 3MS-No.170 orbiter. It was a failed Soviet spacecraft to Mars. It was launched on 10 May 1971 from Baikanour launch pad, Russia and Kosmos was carried by Proton K/D rocket. Due to malfunction of rocket engine, it decayed in low earth orbit after launch on 12 May 1971.

SIMULTANEOUS MISSION:

     Simultaneously United states and Russia made new attempts to reach Red planet. Mariner8 and Mariner9 of NASA, Kosmos 419 of Russia. But Mariner-8 lost in launch failure two days before Kosmos 419 was launched. This spacecraft also lost on 12 May 1971. Mariner-9 became the first spacecraft to orbit Mars.

REASON FOR LAUNCH FAILURE:

     Proton K/D's Block-D ignition timer was incorrectly set. It was set to ignite 1.5 years after launch instead of 1.5 hours.

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BepiColombo

     
     BepiColombo will become third spacecraft to Mercury scheduled to launch in October 2018.. It is a joint mission between European Space Agency and Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency to the Mercury. This mission comprises of two satellite Mercury Planetary Orbiter and Mercury Magnetospheric Orbiter. This satellites will study Mercury's magnetic field,magnetosphere and Interior structure. 

MISSION OBJECTIVES:

• To study the origin and evolution of Mercury
• To study planet's interior structure, geology, composition and craters
• To study mercury's exosphere composition and dynamics
• To study planets Magnetosphere and origin of Mercury magnetic field
• To verify the Einstein's theory of relativity by measuring gamma and beta parameters

COMPONENTS

BepiColombo has two components.They are

1. Mercury Transfer Module
2. Mercury Planetary Orbiter

SCIENTIFIC INSTRUMENTS:

• BELA - BepiColombo Laser Altimeter
• ISA -Italian Spring Accelerometer
• MERMAG - Mercury Magnetometer
• MERTIS - Mercury Thermal Infrared Spectrometer
• MGNS - Mercury Gamma ray and Neutron Spectrometer
• MIXS - Mercury Imaging X-Ray Spectrometer
• MORE - Mercury Orbiter Radio Science Experiment
• PHEBUS - Probing of Hermean Exosphere by Ultraviolet Spectroscopy
• SERENA - Neutral and Ionised particle Analyser
• SIMBIO-SYS - Spectrometers and Imager
• SIXS - Solar Intensity X-Ray Spectrometer 

INSTRUMENTS OF MMO (Mercury Magnetospheric Orbiter)

•  MPPE - Mercury Plasma Perticle Experiment
• MEA - Mercury Electron Analyser
• MIA - Mercury Ion Analyser
• MSA - Mass Spectrum Analyser
• HEP-Ion - High Energy Ions
• HEP-ele - High Energy Electrons
• ENA - Energetic Neutrals Analyzer

• MGF - Magnetic Field Investigation
• PWI - Plasma Wave Investigation
• MSASI - Mercury Sodium Atmosphere Spectral Imager
• MDM - Mercury Dust Monitor

   BepiColombo will be launched from Guiana Space Center using Ariane 5 Rocket which was contracted by Ariane Space Agency on October 2018 as planned. The spacecraft will be operated by European Space Agency and Japan Space Agency (JAXA). Duration of the mission is planned for one year but may be extended depend on the fuel and working efficiency.

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