Mercury (planet)

Whoosh. I am the fastest planet in our whole solar system. I love to zip and zoom around the big, bright Sun like I'm in a race. Being the closest planet to our star is exciting. It makes one side of me super-duper hot, hot enough to melt crayons in an instant. But my other side, the one turned away from the Sun, is freezing cold, colder than any winter day you can imagine. My surface is covered in little and big circles, like cosmic polka dots. These are my craters, which I got when space rocks bumped into me a long, long time ago. For thousands of years, people on Earth saw me as a tiny, bright light moving quickly across the sky. They thought I looked like a speedy messenger. That's how I got my name. I am Mercury.

For a very, very long time, people on Earth could only see me as a tiny dot of light in the sky. As far back as the year 3000 BCE, ancient stargazers would watch me dance near the sunrise and sunset. I felt so far away. I wondered if anyone would ever come to visit me up close. Then, one day, my wish started to come true. Scientists on Earth built a special robot explorer just for me. On November 3rd, 1973, a rocket blasted off carrying my first visitor. Its name was Mariner 10. It traveled for months and months through space. Finally, on March 29th, 1974, Mariner 10 flew right by me. Click. Click. Click. It took the very first close-up pictures of my face. For the first time, people on Earth saw all my craters. They were so excited to see that I wasn't just a dot of light, but a whole new world to explore. Mariner 10 waved hello three times as it flew past, showing everyone my rocky, bumpy surface.

Mariner 10 was a wonderful visitor, but it just flew by and didn't stay. I waited a long time for another friend from Earth. Then, a new spacecraft was built, and it had a special mission: to be my roommate. On August 3rd, 2004, this new explorer, named MESSENGER, blasted off from Earth. It took a very long and winding road to get to me, but it was worth the wait. On March 18th, 2011, something amazing happened. MESSENGER didn't just fly by; it started to circle around me. It became the very first spacecraft to ever orbit me. I wasn't lonely anymore. MESSENGER stayed with me for four whole years, taking pictures and mapping my entire surface. It even discovered one of my biggest secrets. It found ice hidden deep inside some of my craters where the Sun’s rays can never reach. Imagine that, ice on the planet closest to the Sun. MESSENGER taught everyone that I am full of surprises.

My adventures with visitors from Earth are not over yet. A brand new mission is on its way to see me right now. It's called BepiColombo, and it launched on October 20th, 2018. It's taking a long journey, but it will arrive here in the year 2025. I can't wait to show it all my secrets. Every time a new explorer visits, we learn something new. It reminds us all to keep looking up at the sky and to never stop asking questions. There are so many amazing things waiting to be discovered, not just about me, but all across the universe. So keep being curious, and maybe one day you'll help discover the next big secret of space.