Mercury

Images, Videos & Interactives

Messenger: Mercury

Messenger: Mercury

Planets of Our Solar System

transit of Mercury across the face of the Sun

Mercury's north pole

Messenger: Mercury

Mercury: Vivaldi Crater

For Students

Mercury summary

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Remarkable new details of Pluto's largest moon Charon are revealed in this image from New Horizons' Long Range Reconnaissance Imager (LORRI), taken late on July 13, 2015 from a distance of 289,000 miles

Why Is Pluto No Longer a Planet?

Time lapse photo showing transit of Mercury across Sun's disk, November 15, 1999. Image from the Transition Region and Coronal Explorer (TRACE) satellite.

Transit of Mercury

Solar system illustration. (Sun; planets)

A Model of the Cosmos

Planet Mercury photographed by the MESSENGER spacecraft. Colors produced by images from color base map imaging. Colors are not what Mercury looks to human eye. See NOTES:

7 Important Dates in Mercury History

solar eclipse, sun, moon, astronomy, space

How Do You Tell the Difference Between Total, Annular, Solar, and Lunar Eclipses?

Discover

Marriage. A couple getting married during a church wedding ceremony. (religion, ceremony, bride, groom)

The Seven Sacraments of the Roman Catholic church

Agnes with a lamb near her feet. St. Agnes (Saint Agnes) design drawing for stained glass window by J&R Lamb Studios, ink, mount size 10.5 x 14.5 in.

Roman Catholic Saints

Artist interpretation of a Space meteoroid impact. Meteor impact. Asteroid, End of the world, danger, destruction, dinosaur extinct, Judgement Day, Planet Earth, Doomsday Predictions, comet

10 Failed Doomsday Predictions

Figure 13: A Maxim machine gun, belt-fed and water-cooled, operated by German infantrymen, World War I.

7 Deadliest Weapons in History

Queen Elizabeth II addresses at opening of Parliament. (Date unknown on photo, but may be 1958, the first time the opening of Parliament was filmed.)

All 119 References in “We Didn’t Start the Fire,” Explained

Candles Burning On Table In Church

What Is the Most Widely Practiced Religion in the World?

African Americans demonstrating for voting rights in front of the White House as police and others watch, March 12, 1965. One sign reads, "We demand the right to vote everywhere." Voting Rights Act, civil rights.

Timeline of the American Civil Rights Movement

Mercury: Related Content

Written and fact-checked by The Information Architects of Encyclopaedia Britannica

News •

NASA spacecraft finds a layer of diamonds 10-miles thick on planet Mercury • Apr. 22, 2025, 3:28 AM ET (Earth.com)

Photos and Videos

Messenger: Mercury

Messenger: Mercury

transit of Mercury across the face of the Sun

Mercury's north pole

Messenger: Mercury

Mercury: Vivaldi Crater

Mercury: Caloris Basin

Discover the length of days and years on Mercury

The scale of the universe: Earth's solar system and beyond

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Earth Mars Venus Jupiter Saturn Neptune Uranus

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Quiz

The orbits of the planets and other elements of the solar system, including asteroids, Kuiper belt, Oort cloud, comet

Space Odyssey

View of the Andromeda Galaxy (Messier 31, M31).

Astronomy and Space Quiz

View of the Andromeda Galaxy (Messier 31, M31).

Astronomy and Space Quiz

This artist's concept illustrates Kepler-16b, the first planet known to definitively orbit two stars -- what's called a circumbinary planet. The planet, which can be seen in the foreground, was discovered by NASA's Kepler mission. The two orbiting stars r

Extrasolar Planets

Saturn. Saturn and its rings. Second largest planet of the solar system. Space Art

Planets and the Earth’s Moon

1 July 2002: The Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO) satellite reveals a massive solar eruption more than 30 times the Earth's diameter. The eruption formed when a loop of a magnetic field over the surface of the Sun trapped hot gas.

Brightest Star in the Solar System

M101 (NGC 5457, The Pinwheel Galaxy). Hubble Space Telescope image of face-on spiral galaxy Messier 101 (M101). Largest most detailed photo of a spiral galaxy that has ever been released from Hubble. Created from 1994-2003

Everything in Space in a 25-Minute Quiz

Nicolaus Copernicus. Nicolas Copernicus (1473-1543) Polish astronomer. In 1543 he published, forward proof of a Heliocentric (sun centered) universe. Coloured stipple engraving published London 1802. De revolutionibus orbium coelestium libri vi.

All About Astronomy

List

Planet Mercury photographed by the MESSENGER spacecraft. Colors produced by images from color base map imaging. Colors are not what Mercury looks to human eye. See NOTES:

7 Important Dates in Mercury History

Demystified

Remarkable new details of Pluto's largest moon Charon are revealed in this image from New Horizons' Long Range Reconnaissance Imager (LORRI), taken late on July 13, 2015 from a distance of 289,000 miles

Why Is Pluto No Longer a Planet?