An ambitious European-led mission will depart on a fact-finding mission for Mercury, the least explored planet in the solar system in a trip expected to take seven years.
The BepiColombo launches Saturday to provide new insight into how the planet closest to the Sun formed and evolved as part of a project for the European Space Agency (ESA).
The ship will have to travel 9 billion kilometres and withstand extreme temperatures ranging from 450 to -180 degrees centigrade. It is due to launch from Jourour, French Guiana and is a £1.4 billion (Dh 6.7 billion) joint venture between the ESA and Japanese space agency Jaxa.
One major hazard is the intense gravitational pull of the sun. To prevent the spacecraft being dragged into a fiery annihilation, it will attempt to slow itself down via a number of complicated manoeuvres around Venus and Mercury.
Only two previous missions have studied Mercury – Nasa’s Mariner 10 probe in 1973 and Messenger in 2004. Giuseppe ‘Bepi’ Colombo played a hugely influential role in the development of Mariner 10. These missions appeared to show the planet has a molten core far larger than Earth's.
Among the themes to be studies are Mercury’s interior structure, the characterises of its internal field, the structure of its exosphere and the dynamics of the planet magnetosphere.
“We really need to understand Mercury better. So much about it seems wrong for a planet that close to the Sun, so maybe it originated further out. A collision with the proto-Earth or proto-Venus could be what robbed it of so much of its original rock,” said David Rothery, Professor of Planetary Geosciences at the Open University.
“As a volcanologist though, one aspect that really impresses me about Mercury is all the volcanic explosion vents. They are spectacular evidence of violent eruptions, powered by escaping gas that recurred for much of the past four billion years,” he added.
BepiColombo comprises two spacecraft in different orbits to aid scientists understanding of the little-known planet. In particular, dual observations are key to understanding solar-wind-driven magnetospheric processes, affording new science possibilities the ESA said.
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The UK space agency helped contributed to the mission via its scientific, electronic an engineering expertise and industry giant Airbus was involved in building the spacecraft. Some 40,000 people are employed in the UK’s rapidly developing growing space sector.
“The international collaboration involved in this mission shows how our leading role in the European Space Agency is ensuring the UK thrives in the new space age, bringing real benefits to UK companies and scientists,” said Dr Graham Turnock, Chief Executive of the UK Space Agency.
Thales Alenia Space Italy and Airbus’s German division also played a crucial role in the development of the aircraft, ESA said.
The smuggler
Eldarir had arrived at JFK in January 2020 with three suitcases, containing goods he valued at $300, when he was directed to a search area.
Officers found 41 gold artefacts among the bags, including amulets from a funerary set which prepared the deceased for the afterlife.
Also found was a cartouche of a Ptolemaic king on a relief that was originally part of a royal building or temple.
The largest single group of items found in Eldarir’s cases were 400 shabtis, or figurines.
Khouli conviction
Khouli smuggled items into the US by making false declarations to customs about the country of origin and value of the items.
According to Immigration and Customs Enforcement, he provided “false provenances which stated that [two] Egyptian antiquities were part of a collection assembled by Khouli's father in Israel in the 1960s” when in fact “Khouli acquired the Egyptian antiquities from other dealers”.
He was sentenced to one year of probation, six months of home confinement and 200 hours of community service in 2012 after admitting buying and smuggling Egyptian antiquities, including coffins, funerary boats and limestone figures.
For sale
A number of other items said to come from the collection of Ezeldeen Taha Eldarir are currently or recently for sale.
Their provenance is described in near identical terms as the British Museum shabti: bought from Salahaddin Sirmali, "authenticated and appraised" by Hossen Rashed, then imported to the US in 1948.
- An Egyptian Mummy mask dating from 700BC-30BC, is on offer for £11,807 ($15,275) online by a seller in Mexico
- A coffin lid dating back to 664BC-332BC was offered for sale by a Colorado-based art dealer, with a starting price of $65,000
- A shabti that was on sale through a Chicago-based coin dealer, dating from 1567BC-1085BC, is up for $1,950
SPEC%20SHEET%3A%20APPLE%20M3%20MACBOOK%20AIR%20(13%22)
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UPI facts
More than 2.2 million Indian tourists arrived in UAE in 2023
More than 3.5 million Indians reside in UAE
Indian tourists can make purchases in UAE using rupee accounts in India through QR-code-based UPI real-time payment systems
Indian residents in UAE can use their non-resident NRO and NRE accounts held in Indian banks linked to a UAE mobile number for UPI transactions
Key facilities
- Olympic-size swimming pool with a split bulkhead for multi-use configurations, including water polo and 50m/25m training lanes
- Premier League-standard football pitch
- 400m Olympic running track
- NBA-spec basketball court with auditorium
- 600-seat auditorium
- Spaces for historical and cultural exploration
- An elevated football field that doubles as a helipad
- Specialist robotics and science laboratories
- AR and VR-enabled learning centres
- Disruption Lab and Research Centre for developing entrepreneurial skills
SNAPSHOT
While Huawei did launch the first smartphone with a 50MP image sensor in its P40 series in 2020, Oppo in 2014 introduced the Find 7, which was capable of taking 50MP images: this was done using a combination of a 13MP sensor and software that resulted in shots seemingly taken from a 50MP camera.
Killing of Qassem Suleimani
