Compute the position of BepiColombo for any date and time between 21 October 2018
and 5 April 2027
and visualize the results on an interactive sky map.
BepiColombo is a joint mission between the European Space Agency (ESA) and the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) to study Mercury, the smallest and least explored planet in our solar system. The mission consists of two spacecraft: the Mercury Planetary Orbiter (MPO) built by the ESA, and the Mercury Magnetospheric Orbiter (MMO) built by JAXA. The spacecraft were launched on October 20, 2018, aboard an Ariane 5 rocket from French Guiana. The primary scientific objectives of the mission are to study Mercury's magnetic field, its composition, the geology of its surface, and its interaction with the solar wind. The mission will also investigate the planet's exosphere and study its geological history. BepiColombo is expected to arrive at Mercury in December 2025, after several gravity assist flybys of Earth, Venus, and Mercury itself.
BepiColombo is in the constellation of
Aquarius,
at a distance of 189,976,874.0 kilometers from Earth.
The current Right Ascension is
22h 41m 14s
and the Declination is -09° 38’ 48”
(apparent coordinates).
Sky map showing BepiColombo in Aquarius on February, 17 2025.
Field of view: 15x9 degrees. View in interactive sky chart
High precision deep sky finder chart, 60 arcmin wide, showing where BepiColombo is right now.
Click on the image to see a more detailed fullscreen tracker view.
Deep sky finder chart for BepiColombo.
Field of view: 60x40 arcmins.
View in deep sky object tracker
Also check out Where is BepiColombo?,
a page that provides all the information needed to find BepiColombo in the sky and additional links to sky charts.
If you need to access this information frequently for your observations, you can create a simple
customized Quick Access page,
so that you can easily bookmark it in your browser favorites or add a shortcut to your mobile phones' home screen.
Distance from Earth
The distance of BepiColombo from Earth is currently 189,976,874.0 kilometers,
equivalent to 1.2699169655Astronomical Units.
Light takes
10m 33.695s to travel from BepiColombo and arrive to us.
189,976,874.0
1.2699169655
10m 33.695s
The following chart shows the distance of BepiColombo from Earth as a function of time.
In the chart the distance data is measured in Astronomical Units and sampled with
an interval of 1 day.
Chart of the distance of BepiColombo from Earth in Astronomical Units (au)
The value of the reported distance might be somewhat inaccurate around the times of closest approach for objects passing extremely close to Earth.
The value of the distance of BepiColombo from Earth is also available as a real time updated value in the
Live Position and Data Tracker.
Closest Approach
Between 21 October 2018 and 5 April 2027,
the closest approach of
BepiColombo to Earth happens on
Fri Apr 10 2020 at a distance of
0.000582 Astronomical Units, or
87,050 kilometers:
Fri Apr 10 2020
87,050
0.000582
NOTE: values for the closest approach are computed
with a sampling interval of 1 day.
Orbit Visualization
Orbit Diagram of BepiColombo
15 Days Ephemeris
The following table lists the ephemerides of BepiColombo computed for the past and next 7 days, with a 24 hours interval.
Apparent celestial coordinates are provided.
Interactive orbit visualization. 3d
visualization showing the orbit of BepiColombo with respect to the major Solar System objects.
15 days ephemerides. Table
showing celestial coordinates and magnitude of BepiColombo for the past and next 7 days.
Interactive sky chart. An online planetarium application that shows where to locate BepiColombo in the sky from your location.
Live position tracker. A high precision sky chart that uses real deep sky imagery to help locate BepiColombo with your telescope or on your astrophotographies.