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Solar System Simulation Reveals Planetary Mystery
A snapshot of weather patterns around Mars, including blue-white ice clouds that are visible above the Red Planet’s Tharsis volcanoes. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS When we look at the Solar System,...
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Planets with Oddball Orbits Like Mercury Could Host Life
On Mercury a solar day is about 176 Earth days long. During its first Mercury solar day in orbit the MESSENGER spacecraft imaged nearly the entire surface of Mercury to generate a global monochrome map...
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Violent Eruptions in Mercury’s Past Could Hold Clues to Its Formation
Bright deposits around a line of volcanic vents suggest that the eruptions were explosive events.Credit: NASA/Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory/Carnegie Institution of Washington...
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MESSENGER Provides First Optical Images of Ice Near Mercury’s North Pole
An artist’s concept of MESSENGER orbiting Mercury. Credit: NASA NASA’s MErcury Surface, Space ENvironment, GEochemistry, and Ranging (MESSENGER) spacecraft has provided the first optical images of ice...
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Sean Solomon to Receive National Medal of Science
Sean Solomon, PI for NASA’s MESSENGER mission, has been selected to receive the National Medal of Science. Credit: NASA Sean Solomon, former principal investigator for the NASA Astrobiology Institute...
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New Mercury Surface Composition Maps Illuminate the Planet’s History
A View of Mercury From Afar. Image Credit: NASA/Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory/Carnegie Institution of Washington Two new papers from members of the MESSENGER Science Team provide...
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New explanation for Mercury’s dark surface
A new study answers a longstanding mystery about why Mercury’s surface – shown here in an image from the MESSENGER mission – is darker than the Moon’s surface. This study implicates carbon as a...
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NASA Spacecraft Achieves Unprecedented Success Studying Mercury
NASA’s MErcury Surface, Space ENvironment, GEochemistry, and Ranging (MESSENGER) spacecraft traveled more than six and a half years before it was inserted into orbit around Mercury on March 18, 2011....
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NASA Completes MESSENGER Mission with Expected Impact on Mercury’s Surface
Image Credit: NASA/Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory/Carnegie Institution of Washington A NASA planetary exploration mission came to a planned, but nonetheless dramatic, end Thursday...
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Mercury Sole Survivor of Close Orbiting Planets
A tightly packed system of planets, named Kepler-444 and shown in this artist’s representation, is the only system known to bear similarity to the solar system. Credit: Tiago Campante/Peter Devine The...
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First Global Topographic Model of Mercury
NASA’s MESSENGER mission has unveiled the first global digital elevation model (DEM) of Mercury, revealing in stunning detail the topography across the entire innermost planet and paving the way for...
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Researchers trace Mercury’s origins to rare meteorite
An image, taken by MESSENGER during its Mercury flyby on Jan. 14, 2008, of Mercury’s full crescent. Image: NASA/Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory/Carnegie Institution of Washington...
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The Incredible Shrinking Mercury is Active After All
It’s small, it’s hot, and it’s shrinking. Surprising new NASA-funded research suggests that Mercury is contracting even today, joining Earth as a tectonically active planet. Credits:...
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