Despite being an icon in pop culture, our Sun's closest neighboring planet, Mercury, has had a fairly boring life when it comes to space exploration. Thus far, only two NASA missions have explored the ...

When you buy through links on our articles, Future and its syndication partners may earn a commission. Three images acquired by the ESA/JAXA BepiColombo spacecraft during its sixth Mercury flyby on ...

Europe's Mercury-bound probe BepiColombo made its third close flyby of its target planet on Monday (June 19), revealing a surface riddled with craters, including one that just received a name. The ...

Alfredo has a PhD in Astrophysics and a Master's in Quantum Fields and Fundamental Forces from Imperial College London.View full profile Alfredo has a PhD in Astrophysics and a Master's in Quantum ...

BepiColombo captured a farewell image of Mercury as it drifted farther away from the planet. Image: ESA A probe is familiarizing itself with the closest planet to the Sun, gearing up to explore ...

The ESA/JAXA BepiColombo mission has made its third of six gravity assist flybys at Mercury, snapping images of a newly named impact crater as well as tectonic and volcanic curiosities as it adjusts ...

Although the first flyby has provided scientists with a wealth of information, in this mission the main purpose of a flyby is for gravity assist. The maneuvers act as a celestial brake system, slowing ...

The European Space Agency (ESA) launched the BepiColombo mission in 2018, and it is set to enter orbit around Mercury in 2025. In the meantime, it will be making several flybys of the planet, ...

The BepiColombo spacecraft has made its sixth and final flyby of the closest planet to the sun, Mercury, capturing some incredible images of the tiny world. The photos offer tantalizing hints about ...