Mercury is the smallest and innermost planet in our Solar System, orbiting the Sun every 88 Earth days. Its proximity to the Sun, only about 36 million miles away, results in extreme temperature variations, ranging from -280 degrees Fahrenheit at night to 800 degrees Fahrenheit during the day. Mercury has a barren, rocky surface marked with craters and has almost no atmosphere, which means it cannot retain heat or protect itself from solar radiation and space weather. Its thin exosphere is composed mostly of oxygen, sodium, hydrogen, helium, and potassium. Scientific interest in Mercury revolves around its geological history, its magnetic field—which is unusual for such a small planet—and its very dense composition, which suggests a large metallic core. Missions like NASA’s MESSENGER and ESA’s upcoming BepiColombo aim to study Mercury in more detail, offering insights into the planet itself as well as broader questions about planetary formation and evolution in our solar system.
Mercury’s exploration by the Mio spacecraft revealed localized chorus waves in its magnetosphere. International research utilized advanced theories and simulations to understand these waves, emphasizing…
The joint European-Japanese mission, BepiColombo, has revealed how high-energy auroras on Mercury are formed. The research indicates that electrons, accelerated in Mercury’s magnetosphere and precipitating…
Researchers used NASA MESSENGER mission data to map chromium abundance on Mercury, discovering a significant amount in the planet’s large metallic core. This study, combining…
The ESA/JAXA BepiColombo mission has made its third of six gravity assist flybys at Mercury, snapping images of a newly named impact crater as well…
Current advice warns women not to eat fish containing high quantities of mercury. The findings, which combined analysis of over 4,131 expectant women from the…
The ESA/JAXA BepiColombo mission has made its second gravity assist of planet Mercury, capturing new close-up images as it steers closer towards Mercury orbit in…
The ESA/JAXA BepiColombo mission is gearing up for its second close flyby of Mercury on June 23, 2022. ESA’s spacecraft operation team is guiding BepiColombo…
Scientists received new information about the conditions on the planet closest to the Sun. An international group of planetary scientists from the United States, Russia,…
Mercury is special. As the closest planet to the Sun, it occupies a region where the Sun’s influence is changing dramatically. The Sun’s magnetic field,…
The magnetic and particle environment around Mercury was sampled by BepiColombo for the first time during the mission’s close flyby of the planet at 199…
The ESA/JAXA BepiColombo mission has captured its first views of its destination planet Mercury as it swooped past in a close gravity assist flyby last…
The joint European-Japanese BepiColombo mission captured this view of Mercury on October 1, 2021, as the spacecraft flew past the planet for a gravity assist…
The ESA/JAXA BepiColombo mission to Mercury will make the first of six flybys of its destination planet on October 1, 2021, before entering orbit in…
Proximity to the sun’s magnetic field determines a planet’s interior composition, according to new research from the University of Maryland. New research disputes the prevailing…
Mercury is a desert world which scientists until recently considered quite uninteresting. NASA’s Mariner and MESSENGER missions, however, revealed that there is much more to…
The ESA/JAXA BepiColombo mission completed its first flyby on April 10, as the spacecraft came less than 12,700 km from Earth’s surface at 06:25 CEST,…
Controllers at ESA’s mission control center are preparing for a gravity-assist flyby of BepiColombo, the European-Japanese Mercury explorer. The maneuver, which will see the mission…
It is already hard to believe that there is ice on Mercury, where daytime temperatures reach 400 degrees Celsius, or 750 degrees Fahrenheit. Now an…