BepiColombo: Europe's first mission to Mercury sends pics

Europe's BepiColombo mission has returned with its first pictures from Mercury.

This is Europe's first mission to Mercury, which is the smallest and least explored planet in our solar system.

The BepiColombo probe took the pictures just after it whizzed over the world at an altitude of 200km (125miles).

The mission's first pictures were taken by low-resolution monitoring camera.

These are the first images of Mercury taken by the Bepi spacecraft

The BepiColombo probe flew by the planet to get the photos.

It is not yet in Mercury's orbit because it is moving too fast. An orbit is the path an object like a spacecraft or a satellite takes around a planet, moon or a star when it's in space.

The controllers have five more flybys planned where each time they will use the gravity of Mercury to help control the speed of the spacecraft.

The black and white pictures show the northern hemisphere and Mercury's cratered surface.

Prof Dave Rothery from the UK's Open University was excited to see the pictures.

"It's just happy snaps as we're whizzing by, but what a wonderful view we've had of the planet," he told BBC News.

"You're seeing a cratered surface, but also areas which have been smoothed by vast outpourings of volcanic lava.

"Some of the brighter areas are where there've been volcanic explosions in the distant past, and you can also see where today some of the surface material is dissipating to space."

Bepi's mission is to study different parts of Mercury from its core to what happens on its surface.