"Groundbreaking Flyby Reveals Mercury's Radioactive Aurora Reaching Earth's Surface"

New research from the Europlanet Society using data from the BepiColombo space mission has revealed that Mercury's aurora, which regularly emits X-rays, originates from the planet's surface rather than its upper atmosphere. The data showed that charged particles fly up from the dark side of the planet and rain down on the dawn side, creating the auroral glow. Unlike Earth, Mercury's magnetosphere is not powerful enough to shield the planet from the solar wind. This discovery confirms that the mechanism generating aurorae is the same throughout the solar system.