Appropriately, Mercury is the “Winged Messenger.” The smallest planet in our solar system zips around the Sun closer than any other. Mercury completes a full circuit in its orbital relay race every 88 days, at varying speeds around 100,000 miles an hour. At first glance, this tiny rock may look rather dull, but as we’ve learned, Mercury has a lot to say. Despite how close it is to the Sun, there are places on Mercury that never see sunlight. We know now there is water ice hiding in these shadows. One of Mercury’s more important messages to science was that this Albert Einstein guy might be worth listening to. Einstein’s theory of relativity explained a wobble in Mercury’s orbit that puzzled astronomers for 50 years. Holst’s composition for Mercury features a fittingly brisk pace, with punctuated, almost Morse Code-like conversations among the instruments. The Planets, Op. 32, is a seven-movement orchestral suite by the English composer Gustav Holst. Each movement of the suite is named after a planet of the solar system and its corresponding astrological character as defined by Holst. This is Movement III of "The Planets" by Gustav Holst, Mercury, the Winged Messenger as performed in 1998, performed by the U.S. Air Force Heritage of America Band in a transcription by Merlin Patterson. Images: NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center Music: United States Air Force Band | IPGS Music Follow Us: Facebook: https://goo.gl/QapZAe Twitter: https://goo.gl/RoQSmJ #GustavHolst #ThePlanets #Mercury #Planets #PlanetMercury #WingedMessenger #ClassicalMusical #Holst ... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VKYgPDY6rNs

NASA's next Mars lander, InSight, is set to launch May 5 at the earliest from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California, and it will bring a trio of powerful instruments to measure the wobbles, quakes and heat that reveal what's going on deep inside the Red Planet — and perhaps offer insight into how Earth formed, as well. "The goal of InSight is nothing less than to better understand the birth of the Earth, the birth of the planet that we live on," said Bruce Banerdt, InSight's principal investigator at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in California. "And we're going to do that by going to Mars, which seems a little bit counterintuitive." Credit: NASA JPL Follow Us: Facebook: https://goo.gl/QapZAe Twitter: https://goo.gl/RoQSmJ #DeepSpaceTV #PlanetMars #MarsInsight ... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L7CMgMsQJFg

Juno is a NASA space probe orbiting the planet Jupiter. It was built by Lockheed Martin and is operated by NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory. Credit: NASA Follow Us: Facebook: https://goo.gl/QapZAe Twitter: https://goo.gl/RoQSmJ #DeepSpaceTV #4KSpaceVideo #4kUltraHDVideo ... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s7P6ktCluEs

On July 4th, NASA Television aired live coverage of the solar-powered Juno spacecraft’s arrival at Jupiter after an almost five-year journey. Juno is the first spacecraft to orbit the poles of our solar system’s most massive planet. It will circle the Jovian world 37 times during 20 months, skimming to within 3,100 miles above the cloud tops, providing new answers to ongoing mysteries about the planet’s core, composition and magnetic fields. Credit: NASA Follow Us: Facebook: https://goo.gl/QapZAe Twitter: https://goo.gl/RoQSmJ #DeepSpaceTV #JUNOMission #SpaceDocumentary ... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=onta60Al6Aw