Mercury | SpaceRef

Mercury TOP STORY

BepiColombo Completes A flyby Of Mercury For A Gravity Assist

Mercury

The joint European-Japanese BepiColombo mission captured this view of Mercury on 1 October 2021 as the spacecraft flew past the planet for a gravity assist manoeuvre.

Full Story

Mercury

The Rarity Of Boulders On Mercury

Mercury Imaged by MESSENGER

An international group of planetary scientists from the United States, Russia, and Finland for the first time analyzed the abundance of boulders on Mercury and factors that determine it.

Mercury

Mercury Lander: Planetary Mission Concept Study for the 2023-2032 Decadal Survey

As an end-member of terrestrial planet formation, Mercury holds unique clues about the original distribution of elements in the earliest stages of solar system development and how planets and exoplanets form and evolve in close proximity to their host stars.

Mercury

Why Does Mercury Have Such A Big Iron Core? Magnetism!

A new study disputes the prevailing hypothesis on why Mercury has a big core relative to its mantle (the layer between a planet's core and crust).

Mercury

Study Reveals That Mercury Is the Not-So-Shrunken Planet

Findings from a recently published paper by Smithsonian senior scientist Thomas R. Watters reveal that Mercury has managed to retain much more of its interior heat than previously thought.

Mercury

Study Reveals MESSENGER Watched a Meteoroid Strike Mercury

NASA's MErcury Surface, Space ENvironment, GEochemistry and Ranging (MESSENGER) mission to Mercury has been out of operation for nearly six years, but the data it collected keeps on giving, from revealing new insights about Venus' atmosphere to providing a new way to measure the length of time neutrons can survive on their own.

Mercury

BepiColombo Bids Farewell to Earth and the Moon

The joint European-Japanese Mercury spacecraft BepiColombo took a final glimpse of Earth on 11 April 2020, a day after its closest approach to the planet to perform a gravity-assist flyby.

Mercury

BepiColombo Closing In On Earth Ahead Of Flyby

An image taken by the MCAM selfie camera on board of the European-Japanese Mercury mission BepiColombo as it neared Earth ahead of its gravity-assist flyby manoeuvre in April 2020.

Mercury

Mercury's 400 C Heat May Help It make Its Own Ice

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 upcoming study says that the Vulcan heat on the planet closest to the sun likely helps make some of that ice.

Mercury

A Closer Look at Mercury's Spin and Gravity Reveals The Planet's Inner Solid Core

How do you explore the interior of a planet without ever touching down on it? Start by watching the way the planet spins, then measure how your spacecraft orbits it -- very, very carefully.

Mercury

BepiColombo Is Now Firing Its Ion Thrusters

BepiColombo, the joint ESA/JAXA spacecraft on a mission to Mercury, is now firing its thrusters for the first time in flight.

Mercury

BepiColombo Leaves Earth For Mercury

The ESA-JAXA BepiColombo mission to Mercury blasted off on an Ariane 5 from Europe's Spaceport in Kourou at 01:45:28 GMT on 20 October on its exciting mission to study the mysteries of the Solar System's innermost planet.

Mercury

BepiColombo Science Orbiters Stacked Together

The two science orbiters of the joint ESA-JAXA BepiColombo mission are connected in their launch configuration and the European science orbiter and transport module have been given the go-ahead to be loaded with propellants.

Mercury

Video: BepiColombo's Journey to Mercury

Animation visualising BepiColombo's launch and cruise to Mercury.

Mercury

The Chemical Composition of Mercury

The chemical composition of a planetary body reflects its starting conditions modified by numerous processes during its formation and geological evolution.

Mercury

Mapping Geological Features on Mercury

Mercury, the innermost planet of our Solar System is a grey, barren world to our human eyes.

Mercury

Impact of Small Collisions On Mercury's Thin Atmosphere

Mercury, our smallest planetary neighbor, has very little to call an atmosphere, but it does have a strange weather pattern: morning micro-meteor showers.