Taken with MESSENGER's wide-angle camera on Tuesday, this image is actually a composite of eight pictures, each taken through a different color filter (MESSENGER has 11 filters in total). Debussy, the ...

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 ...

Mercury, often considered the “elusive planet,” is notoriously difficult to observe due to its proximity to the Sun. However, ...

When you buy through links on our articles, Future and its syndication partners may earn a commission. Credit: JAXA/ESA The BepiColombo Mercury probe flew close to our solar system's innermost planet ...

Mercury is the innermost and smallest of the eight major planets in our Solar System, orbiting closest to the Sun. Though only slightly larger than Earth’s Moon, Mercury endures some of the most ...

New photos of Mercury's mysterious north pole reveal a glimpse of the permanently dark, frigid craters that may hold ice dozens of feet thick, even though Mercury is the closest planet to the sun.

On March 25, the MESSENGER spacecraft completed its 4,000th orbit of Mercury, and the lowest point in its orbit continues to move closer to the planet than ever before. The orbital phase of the ...

When NASA's Messenger probe finally entered orbit around Mercury, it discovered a world that is still geologically active.

Turns out, it's as tough to drop inward into the inner solar system, as it is to head outward. The problem stems from losing momentum from a launch starting point on Earth. It can take missions ...

Craters at Mercury's poles contain permanently shadowed areas that are some of the coldest sites in the solar system, despite their proximity to the sun. ESA / BepiColombo / MTM, ESA Standard Licence ...

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 ...

A joint Japanese-European mission to Mercury just made its sixth flyby of the planet, revealing stunning close-ups of the permanently shadowed craters at Mercury's north pole. When you purchase ...