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 ...

The BepiColombo mission, by the European Space Agency and the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency, is only the third to study our smallest planetary neighbor ...

Mercury has long been cast as the solar system’s burnt-out rock, a relic too small and too close to the Sun to hold many surprises. That caricature is now collapsing. New analysis of NASA’s MESSENGER ...

Nothing like the controlled disassembly of BepiColombo has ever been attempted in such a harsh environment as the region of space near Mercury. Separation of the Mercury Transfer Module occurred 39 ...

After nearly eight years, a mission to reveal Mercury’s secrets is about to arrive at its destination. But what lies ahead will not be easy.

The BepiColombo spacecraft snaps rare close-up images of Mercury during a planned gravity-assist flyby in 2023. Credit: ESA / JAXA A complex mission to Mercury that began its epic space voyage six ...

Twenty years ago, the MESSENGER mission revolutionized our understanding of Mercury. We sat down with project head and former Carnegie Science director Sean Solomon to talk about how the mission came ...

As an end-member of terrestrial planet formation, Mercury holds unique clues about the original distribution of elements in the earliest stages of solar system development and how planets and ...

Add Yahoo as a preferred source to see more of our stories on Google. An ambitious mission to reveal the secrets of the least explored planet in the inner solar system is taking the initial big step ...