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solar system

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Scratching an itch could help boost your immune defences

Mice that were free to scratch their itchy ears saw the number of immune cells go up and levels of infection-causing bacteria decline

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Environment

Farms can install vertical solar panels without reducing crop yields

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Space

How to see all the solar system’s planets in the night sky at once

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Environment

Reliance on wind and solar does expose nations to energy price spikes

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The physicist on a mission to understand Mercury's epic solar storms

Space

The physicist on a mission to understand Mercury's epic solar storms

Features

n 2025 BepiColombo image1 Top three images from BepiColombo's sixth Mercury flyby 09/01/2025 619 views 4 likes ESA / Science & Exploration / Space Science / BepiColombo On 8 January 2025, the ESA/JAXA BepiColombo mission flew past Mercury for the sixth time, successfully completing the final ?gravity assist manoeuvre? needed to steer it into orbit around the planet in late 2026. The spacecraft flew just a few hundred kilometres above the planet's north pole. Close-up images expose possibly icy craters whose floors are in permanent shadow, and the vast sunlit northern plains. At 06:59 CET, BepiColombo flew just 295 km above Mercury's surface on the planet's cold, dark night side. Around seven minutes later, it passed directly over the Mercury's north pole before getting clear views of the planet's sunlit north. European Space Agency (ESA) Director General Josef Aschbacher revealed the first image during his Annual Press Briefing on 9 January. As during BepiColombo's previous flybys, the spacecraft's monitoring cameras (M-CAMs) did not disappoint. This flyby also marks the last time that the mission's M-CAMs get up-close views of Mercury, as the spacecraft module they are attached to will separate from the mission's two orbiters ? ESA?s Mercury Planetary Orbiter and JAXA?s Mercury Magnetospheric Orbiter ? before they enter orbit around Mercury in late 2026. Celebrating the M-CAMs' final hurrah, let's explore the best three images from BepiColombo's sixth close encounter with the little planet, and what they reveal about mysterious Mercury.

Space

BepiColombo snaps Mercury's dark craters and volcanic plains

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'Killer' cells explain differences in immunity between the sexes

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A little bit of fear can bring down levels of inflammation in the body

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Older people may have better immunity against bird flu virus

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Uranus

Space

Our only visit to Uranus came at an unusual time for the planet

Voyager 2 flew by Uranus in 1986, giving us our only up-close look at the planet – but unusual space weather just before the craft arrived has given us a misleading idea about the planet’s magnetic field

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Space

Distant dwarf planet Makemake might have a surprising ice volcano

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Space

A supernova may have cleaned up our solar system

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Space

New Scientist recommends Brian Cox's new series, Solar System

Culture

Space

NASA set to launch Europa probe to search for signs of habitability

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