SpaceSuzie Imber is a co-investigator for the BepiColombo mission, currently on its way to Mercury. She explains how it will cast new light on the planet's many oddities, from its massive core to its epic solar storms 13 January 2025 Paul RydingAs planets go, Mercury is a world of extremes and one that doesnt always make a great deal of sense. Its iron core is absurdly and inexplicably huge. Despite its searing temperature, it has ice trapped at its poles. It is also pummelled every day by wild solar storms the likes of which Earth only experiences once a century.Suzie Imber hopes she can help us get to know the planet a little better through her work as a co-investigator with Europe and Japans BepiColombo mission, which last week made its final and closest flyby of Mercury, helping it to slow down before it enters orbit in 2026. Imber, based at the University of Leicester, UK, is an expert on space weather and says her studies of Mercury could help us prepare for the worst solar storms here on Earth. She was also, in 2017, the winner of the BBCs Astronauts: Do you have what it takes?, a gauntlet that pitted contestants against the rigours of space travel.Imber told New Scientist why she is so excited about sending a mission to Mercury, what we hope to learn about this intriguing planet and whether she might one day venture out to the final frontier herself.Jonathan OCallaghan: Why are we returning to Mercury now?Suzie Imber: There are loads of reasons. From a high-level perspective, its a pretty unexplored planet. Weve had three flybys and one orbital mission NASAs MESSENGER, which orbited between 2011 and 2015 but the more we learn,