A spacecraft skimmed past Mercury this week, beaming back stunning new images of the surface and showing once again that humankind has a seemingly insatiable longing to understand the universe.

A spacecraft has sent back beautiful new close-up images of the planet ... it contains features unique to Mercury called ‘hollows’ where volatile elements are escaping to space.

The spacecraft is equipped with three monitoring cameras, or M-CAMs, that captured black-and-white images of the innermost planet of the solar system. As the spacecraft approached Mercury from its ...

The images it ... in volatiles — elements like chlorine, sulfur and potassium — thought to readily evaporate on planets with high temperatures. This could indicate that Mercury once formed ...

This image provided by European Space Agency shows close-up photos of Mercury showing northern plains taken by the European-Japanese spacecraft BepiColombo.(AP) CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla.

This image provided by European Space Agency shows close-up photos of Mercury showing northern plains snapped by the European-Japanese spacecraft BepiColombo (European Space Agency via AP ...