A new video released by the European Space Agency (ESA) on Monday (June 27) shows the crater-riddled surface of the solar system's smallest planet Mercury as captured during a super close flyby of the BepiColombo spacecraft. .

BepiColombo, a joint mission of ESA and the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA), is currently on a seven-year cruise through the inner solar system, using the gravity of planets including Mercury, Venus and Earth to slow down so that it can enter Mercury's orbit in 2025. .

The Mercury flyby, which took place on Thursday (June 23), was BepiColombo's second at the scorched, rocky planet that will be its ultimate destination.

That is closer than the two orbiters that comprise the BepiColombo mission will orbit the planet after their arrival. .

Related: BepiColombo spacecraft swings past Venus on long road to Mercury.

Because BepiColombo approached Mercury from the nightside, the spacecraft couldn't photograph the planet at the moment of closest approach.

The new images reveal a plethora of geological features including numerous craters, volcanic planes and cliff-like tectonic cracks.

— BepiColombo spacecraft records the sound of solar wind at Venus.

The first probe to have photographed Mercury was NASA's Mariner 10, which made three flybys at the planet in the early 1970s while in orbit around the sun

BepiColombo's next Mercury flyby will take place about one year from now

She later took a career break to pursue further education and added a Master's in Science from the International Space University, France, to her Bachelor's in Journalism and Master's in Cultural Anthropology from Prague's Charles University. She worked as a reporter at the Engineering and Technology magazine, freelanced for a range of publications including Live Science, Space.com, Professional Engineering, Via Satellite and Space News and served as a maternity cover science editor at the European Space Agency