BepiColombo

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 currently in the constellation of Scorpius.

The current Right Ascension of BepiColombo is 16h 09m 05s and the Declination is -21° 15’ 00” (topocentric coordinates computed for the selected location: Greenwich, United Kingdom edit_location_alt).

Today's rise, transit and set times of BepiColombo from Greenwich, United Kingdom edit_location_alt (all times relative to the local timezone Europe/London):

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.

Available Resources

• Position and finder charts (see also Where is BepiColombo?)
• Distance from Earth (see also How far is BepiColombo from Earth?)
• When does BepiColombo rise and set?
• 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.

Higher 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.

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.

BepiColombo Distance from Earth

The distance of BepiColombo from Earth is currently 233,946,731 kilometers, equivalent to 1.563837 Astronomical Units. Light takes 13 minutes and 0.3623 seconds to travel from BepiColombo and arrive to us.

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.

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 of BepiColombo to Earth

Between 21 October 2018 and 31 October 2025, 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:

NOTE: values for the closest approach are computed with a sampling interval of 1 day.

Visualization of BepiColombo Orbit

This 3d orbit diagram is a feature of our 3D Solar System Simulator and shows the orbit of BepiColombo with respect of the Sun and the orbits of the major planets. The position of BepiColombo and the planets along their orbits in this diagram accurately represents the current configuration of the objects in the Solar System. This is an experimental feature and it requires a WebGL enabled browser. Please provide us feedback!

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. Click on each row of the table to locate BepiColombo in our Online Planetarium at the chosen date.

Date	Right AscensionR.A.	DeclinationDec.	MagnitudeMag	Constellation
2023 Nov 24	15h 27m 02s	-18° 29’ 05”	N.A.	Libra
2023 Nov 25	15h 32m 23s	-18° 52’ 35”	N.A.	Libra
2023 Nov 26	15h 37m 45s	-19° 15’ 24”	N.A.	Libra
2023 Nov 27	15h 43m 05s	-19° 37’ 35”	N.A.	Libra
2023 Nov 28	15h 48m 29s	-19° 59’ 05”	N.A.	Libra
2023 Nov 29	15h 53m 52s	-20° 19’ 56”	N.A.	Libra
2023 Nov 30	15h 59m 16s	-20° 40’ 06”	N.A.	Scorpius
2023 Dec 01	16h 04m 41s	-20° 59’ 36”	N.A.	Scorpius
2023 Dec 02	16h 10m 06s	-21° 18’ 24”	N.A.	Scorpius
2023 Dec 03	16h 15m 33s	-21° 36’ 29”	N.A.	Scorpius
2023 Dec 04	16h 21m 01s	-21° 53’ 53”	N.A.	Scorpius
2023 Dec 05	16h 26m 30s	-22° 10’ 35”	N.A.	Ophiucus
2023 Dec 06	16h 31m 59s	-22° 26’ 31”	N.A.	Ophiucus
2023 Dec 07	16h 37m 32s	-22° 41’ 44”	N.A.	Ophiucus