Mercury – Page 6 – Astronomy Now

See the morning planet show and Mercury at its best

15 October 2015 Ade Ashford

In the small hours of Friday, 16 October, innermost planet Mercury reaches its greatest westerly elongation from the Sun. For those of you in the UK with a flat, unobscured eastern horizon and willing to get up an hour before sunrise, the next few days provide your best opportunity to see Mercury from the Northern Hemisphere during 2015.

Get ready for October’s pre-dawn Moon and planet show

30 September 2015 Ade Ashford

Now that planet Saturn is effectively lost in the dusk twilight for UK-based observers, you may be wondering what has happened to the other four bright naked-eye planets. Far from disappearing, they have just transferred to the morning sky. From 8—11 October, the waning crescent Moon acts as a guide to Venus, Mars, Jupiter then Mercury in the eastern dawn sky.

MESSENGER found evidence of Mercury’s ancient magnetic field

9 May 2015 Astronomy Now

About 4 billion years ago, Mercury’s magnetic field could have been much stronger than today, as indicated by low-altitude observations made by NASA’s MESSENGER spacecraft that revealed evidence of magnetisation of the innermost planet’s ancient crustal rocks.

Mercury’s best early evening twilight show for 2015

1 May 2015 Ade Ashford

The first ten days of May offer observers in the British Isles their best opportunity to see Mercury in the early evening twilight during 2015. So, if you’ve never seen the innermost planet, let dazzling Venus be your convenient guide to this elusive little world.

Planet Mercury blackened by billions of years of comet dust

30 March 2015 Astronomy Now

Mercury’s dark, barely reflective surface has long been a mystery to scientists. Now, researchers believe that a steady rain of carbon over billions of years from comets crumbling near the Sun has coated the innermost planet.

See a 1-day-old Moon challenge

21 January 2015 Ade Ashford

What’s the youngest Moon you’ve ever seen? While the best opportunities generally occur in Northern Hemisphere spring when the ecliptic’s high, 21st January offers UK observers a 28-hour-old lunar crescent.

Elusive Mercury and dazzling Venus together as evening stars

2 January 2015 Mark Armstrong

Inner planets Mercury and Venus are currently approaching conjunction, low to the southwest horizon shortly after sunset. If you have an extra clear sky, then Mars completes the scene.

NASA spacecraft to get bonus time studying Mercury

29 December 2014 Stephen Clark

Running low on fuel after completing the first global survey of Mercury, NASA’s MESSENGER spacecraft could get an extra month of time at the solar system’s innermost planet thanks to a crafty new way of using helium gas to temporarily forestall the mission’s end next year.

Carnegie hosts Mercury crater-naming contest

16 December 2014 Astronomy Now

To celebrate MESSENGER’s highly successful ten-year mission, you’re invited to immortalise five famous artists, composers or writers by naming craters on Mercury in their honour — but hurry, the contest closes 15th January 2015!

Good Morning Mercury

14 October 2014 Astronomy Now

Forget about Mercury’s evening appearance in the first half of this month – it is its morning apparition towards the end of October and into November that is the cause of celebration.