Topic: Mercury (Planet)
Top galleries, list articles, quizzes
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In Pictures: Space photos of the day: Mercury
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In Pictures: Space photos of the day: The Moon
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In Pictures: Space photos of the day 09/10
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In Pictures: Space photos of the day 08/16
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In Pictures: Space photos of the day 07/06
All Content
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What the transit of Venus tells us about alien planets (+video)
The transit of Venus will help astronomers on the hunt for planets outside of our solar system.
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SpaceX Dragon cargo ship splashes down in Pacific Ocean (+video)
The SpaceX Dragon capsule, a privately owned spacecraft, returned to Earth Thursday from the International Space Station
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Transit of Venus: Early 'tape measure' for size of our solar system (+video)
The next transit of Venus occurs June 5. Astronomers once used the transit of Venus across the sun to come up with the 'astronomical unit' – the distance from Earth to our sun.
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SpaceX: Historic space station rendezvous at over 17,000 mph (+video)
The gleaming white Dragon was snared after a few hours of extra checks and maneuvers. The two vessels came together while sailing above Australia at 17,500 mph.
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NASA mission confirms: Ex-asteroid Vesta is a planet that almost was
Data from the orbiter DAWN confirm theories about the history of Vesta, which dates to the early days of planet formation. The protoplanet is also home to the solar system's second largest mountain.
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Planetary wrecking balls: how Jupiter might have destroyed Earth
'Hot Jupiters' are Jupiter-mass planets orbiting close to stars. A study suggests that they might have been kicked inward from their original orbit, destroying or ejecting other planets.
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Mercury: Unusual insides and active history
New information collected by NASA's Messenger shows that Mercury was more geologically active than scientists previously thought.
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Strange features on Mercury upend thinking about 'first rock from sun'
New results from NASA's MESSENGER spacecraft show Mercury to have features unlike anything scientists have seen elsewhere in the solar system. Here's one: a huge core for a planet this size.
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Venus, Jupiter, Mercury, and moon to put on rare spectacle in sky
This past weekend, three planets joined the moon in a rare alignment. On Monday, these celestial bodies will be joined by Mercury.
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Space pioneer John Glenn honored 50 years after historic flight
Hundreds of NASA workers jammed a space center auditorium to mark the 50th anniversary of John Glenn's historic flight, to see and hear the first American to circle the Earth.
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Is NASA giving up on Mars? (+video)
NASA's 2013 budget includes deep cuts to its planetary science mission, particularly its efforts to send spacecraft to Mars. Instead, the space agency will focus on human spaceflight and infrared astronomy. Is NASA now heading down the wrong path?
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Smallest-ever exoplanets found, one step closer to Earth-twin
These planets, while roughly the size of our planet Earth, are circling very close to their star, giving them fiery temperatures that are most likely too hot to support life, researchers said.
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First Earth-size planets found around distant star – in a bizarre solar system
For the first time, NASA's Kepler spacecraft has found two Earth-size planets outside our solar system – a landmark achievement. But the planets are in a solar system that baffles scientists and could overthrow current models of planet formation.
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What will happen after sun vaporizes Earth? Scorched planets hold clues.
Scientists say they've found two planets that survived being swallowed by a red-giant star. Earth won't be so fortunate when our sun becomes a red giant in 5 billion years, but the find shows what can happen to solar systems after such dramatic events.
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Asteroid Vesta features mountain bigger than any on Earth
Asteroid Vesta is currently in the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter. Scientists recently discovered a huge mountain on the asteroid Vesta.
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Messenger's message from Mercury: Time to rewrite the textbooks
Scientists with the Messenger mission to Mercury unveiled their findings Thursday, which are answering some decades-old mysteries – but also creating new ones.
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In search for life, more planet 'candidates' are found. Are any just right?
For a planet to support life, it faces long odds: It has to be the right size, right composition, and right distance from its star. On Monday astronomers announced a trove of new planet 'candidates.'
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NASA's Messenger probe beams back amazing images of Mercury
NASA's Messenger probe, the first spacecraft ever to orbit Mercury, has already taken more than 20,000 images.
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How Mercury is like Saturn (and other surprises from NASA's orbiter)
NASA's Messenger craft has been orbiting Mercury for 88 days. Among its findings: a Saturn-like magnetic field, high concentrations of sulfur, and some support for the notion there is water ice in shadowed craters.
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End of the world May 21st? About a billion years too soon, astronomers say.
Beginning of the end of the world: May 21st is what a California minister (with a considerable following) predicts. Scientists, for their part, consider the sun's 'habitable zone' in calculating when Earth will become toast.
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In tonight's meteor shower, watch falling debris from Halley's Comet
Halley's Comet won't be back for half a century, but tonight Earth will move through some of the debris the comet left behind, creating a spectacular meteor shower – if you live far enough south.
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First photo of Mercury from orbiting spacecraft
The first of thousands of new photos of Mercury was released by NASA Tuesday. The Messenger spacecraft is the first to orbit Mercury and has begun a one-year mission to map the planet closest to the Sun.
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NASA milestone: MESSENGER spacecraft enters orbit around Mercury
Mercury had been excluded from the travels of instrument-loaded orbiters because of the difficulty of the mission – until now. On Thursday, the NASA MESSENGER started orbiting the planet.
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In Pictures: Space photos of the day: Mercury
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NASA probe poised to be first to orbit Mercury
After a journey of 6 1/2 years, nearly 15 laps around the sun, NASA's Messenger spacecraft will perform its orbital insertion maneuver on Thursday, becoming the first spacecraft to enter Mercury's orbit.
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