Very soon, probably on 30 April, a half-tonne spacecraft will plough into the surface of Mercury, the closest planet to the sun, at about 4km/s or nearly 9,000mph. The spacecraft is NASA's MESSENGER ("MErcury Surface, Space ...
Space Exploration
Apr 27, 2015
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A spacecraft that carries a sensor built at the University of Michigan is about to crash into the planet closest to the sun—just as NASA intended.
Space Exploration
Apr 19, 2015
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After extraordinary science findings and technological innovations, a NASA spacecraft launched in 2004 to study Mercury will impact the planet's surface, most likely on April 30, after it runs out of propellant.
Space Exploration
Apr 17, 2015
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A team of scientists has a new explanation for the planet Mercury's dark, barely reflective surface. In a paper published in Nature Geoscience, the researchers suggest that a steady dusting of carbon from passing comets has ...
Space Exploration
Mar 30, 2015
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NASA's MErcury Surface, Space ENvironment, GEochemistry, and Ranging (MESSENGER) mission, now nearing the end of its fourth and final year of orbital operations at Mercury, is well into a low-altitude campaign that is returning ...
Space Exploration
Mar 16, 2015
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Close by the Sun is Mercury, a practically atmosphere-like world that has a lot of craters. Until NASA's MESSENGER spacecraft arrived there in 2008, we knew very little about the planet—only part of it had been imaged! ...
Space Exploration
Feb 20, 2015
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A Sun-like star with orbiting planets, dating back to the dawn of the Galaxy, has been discovered by an international team of astronomers.
Astronomy
Jan 27, 2015
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Is it snowing metal on Venus? Erika Kohler is trying to find out.
Space Exploration
Oct 3, 2014
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(Phys.org) —The solar wind of particles streaming off the sun helps drive flows and swirls in space as complicated as any terrestrial weather pattern. Scientists have now spotted at planet Mercury, for the first time, a ...
Space Exploration
Jun 17, 2014
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(Phys.org) —NASA's Curiosity Mars rover has imaged the planet Mercury passing in front of the sun, visible as a faint darkening that moves across the face of the sun.
Space Exploration
Jun 10, 2014
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