
Do Glaciers on Mercury Suggest Such a Planet Could Be Habitable?
Salt glaciers on Mercury suggest conditions friendly to life — but not life itself — might once have existed on the innermost planet.

BepiColombo First Picture of Mercury (Updated)
BepiColombo is set to make the first of several flybys past Mercury on Friday, October 1st.

Why Have Parts of Mercury's Landscape "Deflated"?
A type of landscape on Mercury known as “chaotic terrain” might have released materials stored underground for eons.

Capturing the Transit of Mercury
Though clouds blocked the sky for many yesterday, those with a clear view had the chance to see tiny Mercury cross the face of the Sun.

Explore the Night with Bob King
Don't Miss Monday's Rare Transit of Mercury
On Monday, November 11th, Mercury will pass directly in front of the Sun and look a tiny black dot silhouetted against the brilliant solar disk. The event, called a transit, occurs approximately 13 times a century.

Citizen Science with the Transit of Mercury
If you're planning on watching the November 11th transit of Mercury, try kicking it up a notch — watch with a friend and calculate the distance between Earth and the Sun!

Explore the Night with Bob King
Perseid Prospects, Mornings with Mercury and the Lunar X
With the Perseid shower, a great morning apparition of Mercury, and a chance to see craters scratch out an X on the moon, skywatchers have a busy week ahead!

Explore the Night with Bob King
A Zodiac Ramble . . . with a Few Fun Detours
Take a trip along the ecliptic from dusk till dawn to check out the sights along this well-traveled highway — the zodiacal light, Mercury, and the gegenschein, plus scenic detours to a comet and asteroid.

Venus Occults a Star and Mercury Joins Jupiter on the Winter Solstice
Bring in winter with a bang with a beautiful, close conjunction and a rare planet-star occultation.

Mission to Mercury Launches
The BepiColombo spacecraft, Europe's first mission to Mercury, rocketed away from Earth to begin its seven-year trek to the innermost planet.

Explore the Night with Bob King
See Mercury First, Then Have Breakfast
Late sunrises make it easy to follow the parade of planets at dawn, including a nice apparition of Mercury this week with three successive lunar conjunctions.

Explore the Night with Bob King
Mercury Punctuates The False Dawn
Early risers get a triple treat this week and next: a ravishing dawn Moon, an excellent apparition of Mercury, and a hint of Halloween in the ghostly zodiacal light.

Mercury's Slow Glide Across the Sun
May 9th's transit of Mercury is now history. Countless amateurs — and professionals — watched as the innermost planet had its day in the Sun. It's sometimes the curse of being involved in astronomical outreach that I miss all the action during an important celestial event. For example, I never…

Mercury Transit: Everything You Need to Know
The littlest planet will cross the enormous Sun for viewers in most of the world.

How to Spot Mercury in the Evening Sky
If you've never seen the fleet-footed planet Mercury, now is a great time to look for it in the evening sky after sunset.