A joint effort between the European Space Agency and the Japanese Aerospace Exploration Agency is nearing its destination after almost 8 years of travel. The BepiColombo mission aims to uncover secrets of the least explored planet in the inner solar system.

The mission was launched in October 2018 on an Ariane 5 rocket and has since traveled over 6 billion miles. It is named after Italian engineer and mathematician Giuseppe "Bepi" Colombo.

Further details about the mission and its goals are available, including its plan to use two complementary orbiters to reveal information about the formation and evolution of the planet Mercurio.