Mercury

Who was Giuseppe ‘Bepi’ Colombo and why Does he Have a Spacecraft Named After him?

Astronomers have an excellent habit of naming large projects after deserving contributors to their field.  From Nancy Grace Roman to…

3 years ago

The First Images and Videos from the Double Venus Flyby

Two spacecraft made historic flybys of Venus last week, and both sent back sci-fi-type views of the mysterious, cloud-shrouded planet.…

3 years ago

MESSENGER Saw a Meteoroid Strike Mercury

Telescopes have captured meteoroids hitting the Moon and several spacecraft imaged Comet Shoemaker–Levy 9 smacking into Jupiter in 1994. But…

3 years ago

BepiColombo captured images of Earth during its recent flyby

Farewell! Even though the BepiColombo mission launched for Mercury in 2018, it's still hanging around the Earth - at least,…

4 years ago

The Intense Heat from the Sun Helps Ice Form on Mercury. Wait… What?

While the scorching planet Mercury might not be the first place you’d think to look for ice, the MESSENGER mission…

4 years ago

Satellites Watched Mercury’s Transit From Space, Confirming That Yes, the Sun Has At Least One Planet

Do you wonder how astronomers find all those exoplanets orbiting stars in distant solar systems? Mostly they use the transit…

4 years ago

Mercury has Magnetic Poles that Drift Like Earth’s

Earth's magnetic poles drift over time. This is something that every airplane pilot or navigator knows. They have to account…

5 years ago

There May be Thick Ice Deposits on the Moon and Mercury

According to a new analysis of LRO and MESSENGER data, the ice deposits on the Moon and Mercury could be…

5 years ago

Mercury-Bound BepiColombo is About to Start Using the Most Powerful Ion Engines Ever Sent to Space

A handful of spacecraft have used ion engines to reach their destinations, but none have been as powerful as the…

5 years ago

Forming Dense Metal Planets like Mercury is Probably Pretty Difficult and Rare in the Universe

A new study by a team of Swiss astronomers indicates that Mercury-like planets, which have a high iron-to-rock ration, are…

6 years ago