Mercury

New computer simulations of Mercury's formation show the fate of material blasted out into space when a large proto-planet collided with a giant asteroid 4.5 billion years ago. The simulations, which track the material over several million years, shed light on why Mercury is denser

NASA's MESSENGER spacecraft, headed toward the first study of Mercury from orbit, swung by Earth today for a gravity assist that propelled it deeper into the inner solar system.

MESSENGER (MErcury Surface, Space ENvironment, GEochemistry, and Ranging) is a scientific investigation of the planet Mercury, and the first NASA mission designed to orbit the planet closest to the Sun.

The Mercury mission, MESSENGER, has successfully put itself on course for an Earth flyby and eventual rendezvous with the innermost planet. The probe will provide the first close-up insight into the tiny world that is permanently heated and frozen depending on which side of globe

The MESSENGER spacecraft launched into space early this morning. It then began a long seven-year journey to Mercury, an incredibly dense world that may have withered in the heat of the sun.

Visiting an inner planet like Mercury exposes a spacecraft to eleven times the solar intensity compared to Earth. But the early August launch of the MESSENGER probe will look for cometary water-ice in any shaded areas, until it eventually crashes and plants its flag.

NASA's first orbiter to the innermost planet Mercury is set for launch this summer. How to protect a delicate probe so close to the Sun? How could such a baked rock preserve the water-ice remnants of colliding comets? As the MESSENGER mission prepares for its

From most parts of Europe, Africa and Western Asia, the planet Mercury will pass in front of the Sun Wednesday morning around sunrise. The transiting of large, distant planets is one of the most recent methods for discovering distant worlds.