(CNN)After landing a probe on an icy comet and possibly shedding new light on the origins of life on Earth, the European Space Agency (ESA) is now looking at scorching-hot Mercury for its next mission. The innermost planet of our solar system orbits so close to the Sun that, in some instances, surface temperature surpasses 400 °C. Areas of the planet without sunlight, on the other hand, can become as cold as -170 °C. No other planet has variations in temperature so severe. The reason for this is the absence of any significant atmosphere, which Mercury is too hot and too small to retain. With a diameter of just over 3,000 miles, it's just a third larger than the Moon, and smaller than two other moons in the solar system -- Saturn's Titan and Jupiter's Ganymede.
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ESA's next mission, BepiColombo, will explore the planet closest to the Sun, Mercury
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The probe will launch in 2016 and reach Mercury in 2024
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It will endure temperatures of 350 degrees Celsius and observe Mercury from orbit
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The data will be used, among other things, to confirm Einstein's theory of relativity
ESA's mission to @placeholder will tentatively launch on 21 July 2016, to reach Mercury's orbit seven and a half years later, in 2024.