bepicolombo

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

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

New Way to Make Plasma Propulsion Lighter and More Efficient

A new study from a team of British and French physicists presents a concept for plasma thrusters that are both…

7 years ago

Mercury MESSENGER Mission Concludes with a Smashing Finale!

The planet Mercury has a brand new 52-foot-wide crater. At 3:26 p.m.  EDT this afternoon, NASA's MESSENGER spacecraft bit the Mercurial dust,…

9 years ago

Mercury Spacecraft Moves To Testing Ahead Of 2016 Launch To Sun’s Closest Planet

After facing down a couple of delays due to technical difficulties, Europe's and Japan's first Mercury orbiter is entering some…

9 years ago