--- title: It's Your Universe Podcast: Jeffrey Kluger on Mercury description: Why Mercury is actually quite lovely canonical: https://time.com/4209239/its-your-universe-podcast-mercury-space/ author: Jeffrey Kluger article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2016-02-05T14:24:28.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-05-11T05:00:27.685Z article:section: Science og:title: Listen to TIME's New Space Podcast 'It's Your Universe' og:description: Why Mercury is actually quite lovely og:url: https://time.com/4209239/its-your-universe-podcast-mercury-space/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: TIME og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Listen to TIME's New Space Podcast 'It's Your Universe' twitter:description: Why Mercury is actually quite lovely twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production --- # Listen to the New Episode of TIME's Space Podcast 'It's Your Universe'  by [Jeffrey Kluger](/author/jeffrey-kluger/)  ## Jeffrey Kluger Editor at Large Feb 5, 2016 2:24 PM CUT  by [Jeffrey Kluger](/author/jeffrey-kluger/)  ## Jeffrey Kluger Editor at Large Feb 5, 2016 2:24 PM CUT You’d have no reason at all to want to visit Mercury. It’s a bleak, dry, blowtorched world, the roasted hazel nut of the solar system. It’s a place that is simultaneously hot enough to melt lead and cold enough to liquefy helium. It has no air, no water and the only weather it experiences are ferocious magnetic tornadoes. But Mercury is also one of the niftiest, toughest and—oddly—loveliest planets we’ve ever known. Listen to Episode 2[ of my new podcast, _It’s Your Universe,_ to learn why the little planet that is so often an afterthought should be overlooked no more.](http://time.com/its-your-universe/ "undefined")  ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4209239/its-your-universe-podcast-mercury-space/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4209239/its-your-universe-podcast-mercury-space/"},"headline":"Listen to the New Episode of TIME's Space Podcast 'It's Your Universe'","datePublished":"2016-02-05T14:24:28.000Z","dateModified":"2026-05-11T05:00:27.685Z","description":"Why Mercury is actually quite lovely","url":"https://time.com/4209239/its-your-universe-podcast-mercury-space/","keywords":["Space","Podcast"],"thumbnailUrl":"","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Jeffrey Kluger","jobTitle":"Editor at Large","url":"https://time.com/author/jeffrey-kluger/"}],"articleSection":"Science","image":[],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/science/","name":"Science"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/space/","name":"Space"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4209239/its-your-universe-podcast-mercury-space/","name":"Listen to the New Episode of TIME's Space Podcast 'It's Your Universe'"}}]}] ```