According to NASA, the planetary phenomenon will be clearest about 45 minutes before sunrise, low in the eastern sky and appearing near the moon. Venus and Saturn will be the easiest to spot — but for ...

Mercury’s surface, particularly dark-colored patches of graphite, a type of carbon, have left scientists scratching their heads for decades. Mercury has miles of diamond between its core and ...

These include its very dark surface, remarkably dense core, and the premature end of Mercury's volcanic era. Also among these puzzles are patches of graphite, a type (or "allotrope") of carbon on ...

The result is a database of glowing fingerprints for several minerals, which the science team can compare to the MERTIS data to identify what different patches of Mercury's surface are made of ...

Alongside a crescent moon, Mercury, Venus and Saturn will become ... appears as a small, fuzzy, star-like patch of light," the agency says on its website. "With a small telescope, you'll see ...