Mercury | SpaceRef

Mercury TOP STORY

Great Valley Found on Mercury

Great Valley

Scientists have discovered a new large valley on Mercury that may be the first evidence of buckling of the planet's outer silicate shell in response to global contraction.

Mercury is Tectonically Active

Mercury

It's small, it's hot, and it's shrinking. New NASA-funded research suggests that Mercury is contracting even today, joining Earth as a tectonically active planet.

Mercury

Volcanic Activity on Mercury Stopped About 3.5 Billion Years Ago

New research from North Carolina State University finds that major volcanic activity on the planet Mercury most likely ended about 3.5 billion years ago.

Mercury

Russia Plans for Ganymede and Mercury Missions Continue

Russian plans to send a lander to Ganymede, the Laplace mission, and an orbiter to Mercury. This video from the Russian space agency ROSCOMOS provides an update on the missions.

Mercury

Preparing BepiColombo For Mercury

The ESA-JAXA BepiColombo mission to Mercury must withstand extremely harsh conditions while in orbit around the innermost planet of our Solar System.

Mercury

Researchers Trace Mercury's Origins to Rare Meteorite

Around 4.6 billion years ago, the universe was a chaos of collapsing gas and spinning debris.

Mercury

Stunning Video: Mercury Transits The Face of The Sun

Around 13 times per century, Mercury passes between Earth and the sun in a rare astronomical event known as a planetary transit.

Mercury

First Global Topographic Model of Mercury

The MESSENGER mission has released the first global digital elevation model (DEM) of Mercury, revealing in stunning detail the topography across the entire innermost planet and paving the way for scientists to characterize fully the planet's geologic history.

Mercury

Watch Mercury Transit The Sun

NASA is inviting media and viewers around the world to see a relatively rare celestial event, with coverage of the Monday, May 9 transit of the sun by the planet Mercury.

Mercury

Mercury's Mysterious Darkness Revealed

Scientists have long been puzzled about what makes Mercury's surface so dark.

Mercury

Mercury Gets a Meteoroid Shower From Comet Encke

The planet Mercury is being pelted regularly by bits of dust from an ancient comet, a new study has concluded.

Mercury

BepiColombo Mercury Orbiter Preparations Continue

Modules of the BepiColombo spacecraft, which will be on public view during the Sunday 4 October Open Day of ESA's ESTEC technical centre in the Netherlands.

Mercury

MESSENGER Finds Evidence of Ancient Magnetic Field on Mercury

About 4 billion years ago, Mercury's magnetic field could have been much stronger than today, as indicated by low-altitude observations made by NASA's MESSENGER spacecraft that revealed evidence of magnetization of ancient crustal rocks on Mercury.

Mercury

MESSENGER Impact Region on Mercury

This region of Mercury's surface has a new crater!

Mercury

Mercury Crater-Naming Contest Winners Announced

The MESSENGER Education and Public Outreach (EPO) Team, coordinated through the Carnegie Institution for Science, has announced the winners from its competition to name five impact craters on Mercury after artists.

Mercury

Unmasking the Secrets of Mercury

The Mercury Atmosphere and Surface Composition Spectrometer (MASCS) instrument aboard NASA's MESSENGER spacecraft was designed to study both the exosphere and surface of the planet Mercury.

Mercury

MESSENGER Achieves Unprecedented Success Studying Mercury

After extraordinary science findings and technological innovations, a NASA spacecraft launched in 2004 to study Mercury will impact the planet's surface, most likely on April 30, after it runs out of propellant.