The BepiColombo spacecraft will start orbiting Mercury in 2026. Right now, it's conducting a series of flybys of the planet to get into position for that orbit. On Jan. 8, one of those flybys ...

With its job done, Bepi will spend two years cruising around the sun before getting roped into Mercury’s orbit by 2026. The craft will then split in two and, from 2027, gather more data about ...

“We needed nine flybys (one at Earth, two at Venus, and six at Mercury) to slow down our spacecraft and bring it into a good position to enter the orbit of Mercury.” Sequence of 89 images ...

The spacecraft will continue its journey toward Mercury’s orbit, where it will study the planet's surface and magnetic field in greater detail for at least a year. "In 2027, the main science ...

The four-planet lineup that began in January concludes by mid- to late February, as Saturn sinks increasingly lower in the ...

Four planets will be widely visible to the naked eye through part of February, but calling them a 'planetary alignment' may ...

taking advantage of the planet’s gravity to adjust its course so it can enter orbit in 2026. On the flyby, the spacecraft passed within just 180 miles of Mercury’s surface, enabling it to ...

Mercury has the shortest and fastest orbit around the Sun and experiences dramatic temperature changes as it rotates. It is a world of extremes. Explore facts about our solar system's fastest planet.

Dwarf planet Pluto, on the other hand, has a fairly squashed orbit. Mercury, the closest planet to the sun, has the most eccentric orbit, with the difference between the distance at perihelion and ...

The BepiColombo spacecraft is due to start orbiting Mercury next year, but a recent flyby has captured breathtaking images of its pockmarked surface ...