The smallest planet in our solar system and nearest to the Sun, Mercury is only slightly larger than Earth's Moon. From the surface of Mercury, the Sun would appear more than three times as large as it does when viewed from Earth, and the sunlight would be as much as seven times brighter.

Mercury is the fastest planet in our solar system – traveling through space at nearly 29 miles (47 kilometers) per second. The closer a planet is to the Sun, the faster it travels. Since Mercury is the fastest planet and has the shortest distance to travel around the Sun, it has the shortest year of all the planets in our solar system – 88 ...

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Jan 9, 2025 · The mission focuses on fundamental science questions that can be best, or only, achieved by surface operations such as determining Mercury''s bulk composition, the nature of the magnetic field, surface history, internal structure, and surface-solar wind interactions.

Jan 9, 2025 · NASA’s real-time science encyclopedia of deep space exploration. Our scientists and far-ranging robots explore the wild frontiers of our solar system.

Jan 9, 2025 · A lifelong resident of New Jersey, Paul has a Bachelor of Science degree from Rutgers University. He is a member of the New Jersey Astronomical Association and former leader for the Somerset County 4-H Space & Astronomy Club.

Jan 9, 2025 · Panel Selection: Inner Planets: Mercury, Venus, and the Moon. Giant Planets: Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune, and exoplanets, including rings and magnetic fields, but not their satellites. Satellites: Galilean satellites, Titan, and the other satellites of the giant planets.

Stardust Spacecraft to Continue Flying The Stardust-NExT will utilize the existing Stardust spacecraft to flyby Comet Tempel 1 in 2011, and observe changes in the comet since Deep Impact visited it in 2005.

NASA's MESSENGER spacecraft imaged comet 2P/Encke during its closest approach of the planet Mercury at 22:56 UTC on November 17. Image Credit: NASA/Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory/Carnegie Institution of Washington/Southwest Research Institute

Panel Selection: Inner Planets: Mercury, Venus, and the Moon. Institution: University of Wisconsin-Madison he primary difficulty in accepting the computer modeled "giant impact" hypothesis for the origin of the Moon, versus independent derivation, comes from the analysis of the non-glass components of lunar pyroclastic deposits.