One week ago, the MESSENGER spacecraft transmitted to Earth the first high-resolution image of Mercury by a spacecraft in over 30 years since the three Mercury flybys of Mariner 10 in 1974 and 1975.

Nobody?s ever seen Mercury in such detail, or color. The first images of the planet in 30 years provide rich close-ups of ridges, cliffs and compound crater formations, all in high-resolution color.

Mercury is a planet that just doesn't make sense. It's incredibly small yet hosts a relatively massive core. Mercury is so strange that astronomers have not been able to explain its properties with ...

Mercury, the first planet from the Sun - The Forgotten Planet. With the search for life beyond Earth primarily focusing on Mars and the rest of the solar system, it’s easy to forget about the small ...

View of planet Mercury from space. Space, nebula and planet Mercury. This image elements furnished by NASA. A few evenings ago I found myself in a remote layby in Utah close to Canyonlands National ...

Far smaller and closer to the Sun than it should be, Mercury has long baffled astronomers because it defies much of what we know about planet formation. A new space mission arriving in 2026 might ...

Mercury is a planet of extremes. When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission. Here’s how it works. The planet is named after the Roman deity Mercury, the speedy ...

Mercury’s image problem is fading. On Jan. 14, NASA’s MESSENGER spacecraft flew within 200 kilometers of the solar system’s smallest—and oft-ignored—planet. The craft viewed one crater-pocked ...

One week ago, NASA's MESSENGER spacecraft transmitted to Earth the first high-resolution image of Mercury by a spacecraft in over 30 years, since the three Mercury flybys of Mariner 10 in 1974 and ...