It seems like it should be pretty easy to get to Mercury. The little rocky planet is so much closer to Earth than distant destinations like Jupiter, where we’ve successfully sent multiple spacecraft.

This is already the sixth mission of the BepiColombo probe in Mercury's orbit. This time, it approached the most minor planet in the Solar System to a distance of just 295 kilometres. The closer looks ...

The BepiColombo spacecraft has sent back three images of Mercury after a brief flyby of the planet on Jan. 8, 2025.

Research has shown that these crater bottoms likely contain thick deposits of water ice. The new images of these cold craters come courtesy of BepiColombo, a joint mission of the Japan Aerospace ...

The BepiColombo spacecraft has sent back some incredibly detailed images of Mercury’s north pole. The snapshots were collected during its closest ever flyby of our solar system’s smallest planet.

A spacecraft named BepiColombo is currently zipping by planet Mercury, making a very close flyby and snapping incredible high ...

This is one of a series of images taken by the ESA/JAXA BepiColombo mission on 8 January 2025 as the spacecraft sped by for its sixth and final gravity assist manoeuvre at the planet. Flying over ...

The photos were released by the European Space Agency (ESA) as part of BepiColombo, a mission in partnership with Japan to send a spacecraft to Mercury. This latest round of photos comes via the ...

The European-Japanese BepiColombo spacecraft, which has been studying Mercury since its launch in 2018, flew just 183 miles above the planet's night side during its final flyby of the planet.

Suzie Imber is a co-investigator for the BepiColombo mission, currently on its way to Mercury. She explains how it will cast new light on the planet's many oddities, including its awful space weather ...

Japanese BepiColombo spacecraft captured close-up images of Mercury’s north pole during its final flyby, offering new views of the planet’s surface.

But, in fact, it’s actually really difficult to reach the innermost planet of our solar system—which makes it that much more impressive that the ESA and JAXA’s BepiColombo mission has almost ...