A snapshot of Mercury’s magnetosphere seen by MIPA in BepiColombo’s MSB6

BepiColombo made its sixth and final swing-by of Mercury on January 8, 2025, crossing from the nightside over the north pole to the dayside near the noon-midnight plane. The Miniature Ion Precipitation Analyzer (MIPA), an ion analyzer in the Search for Exospheric Refilling and Emitted Natural Abundance (SERENA) instrument suite on the Mercury Planetary Orbiter (MPO), made observations throughout the swing-by, observing positive ions in the range from 30 eV – 14 keV with a hemispherical field of view. This swing-by gives a unique snapshot of the state of Mercury’s magnetosphere, as MIPA observed several magnetospheric regions within a short period, some of them for the first time. We observe the plasma sheet and plasma sheet horns, as well as plasma upwelling from the northern polar cusp to the dayside magnetopause. Passing through the dayside magnetosheath shows high anisotropic fluxes, as the magnetosheath bulk flow was in the MIPA FOV, unlike previous swing-bys. Following the bow shock crossing, we see a distinct foreshock population, followed by a half an hour gap in signal before a second foreshock detection at +5 R_M. We then compare the MIPA observations to modeled magnetic fields and environment. The combination of all the swing-bys highlights the versatility of planetary swing-by trajectories, which allow for observations of regions that may not be accessible after orbit insertion.