MESSENGER began its 2,000th orbit around Mercury earlier this week, on May 22. The spacecraft completed its primary mission on March 17, 2012, and its first extended mission on March 17, 2013. The ...

BepiColombo, a joint European-Japanese mission, completed its latest flyby of Mercury, sending back a sneak peek of the cratered planet it will begin to orbit in 2026. By Katrina Miller On Thursday, a ...

ESA's Solar Orbiter captured views of the planet Mercury passing in front of the Sun. Multiple instruments aboard the ...

Breakthroughs, discoveries, and DIY tips sent every weekday. Terms of Service and Privacy Policy. It seems like it should be pretty easy to get to Mercury. The little ...

Where will we first find life beyond Earth? This is what a recent study published in The Astronomical Journal hopes to ...

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) – The only spacecraft ever to orbit Mercury ended its four-year tour with a crash landing Thursday. NASA’s Messenger plunged from orbit as planned and slammed into the sun’s ...

"It's really exciting to start seeing the link between the planet's surface and the plasma environment." When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission. Here’s how it ...

Aerojet, a GenCorp (NYSE:GY) company, announced today that NASA’s MESSENGER (MErcury Surface, Space ENvironment, GEochemistry, and Ranging) spacecraft has successfully achieved the first-ever orbit ...

Europe's BepiColombo mission will enter orbit of the solar system's first planet in about two years, but it's been whizzing past Mercury regularly as it lines up its approach. The ESA reports that ...

Despite being relatively nearby, very few space probes have visited the solar system's innermost planet. Any spacecraft aiming to study Mercury must accelerate to incredible speeds, and that can take ...