English news for Friday, September 11, 2026

Mercury is a planet. It is smaller now than it was when it formed. A team of scientists in Japan says its radius^*1 has shrunk by more than 10 kilometers.

The team is from Hokkaido University, a university in Japan. Gaku Nishiyama, a researcher at the university, led the study. Scientists from the German Aerospace Center (DLR) and the University of Tokyo also worked on it. The study was published on Thursday, September 10, in the science journal^*2 Geophysical Research Letters.

When Mercury shrank, it left marks on its surface. Scientists study these marks to see how much the planet has shrunk. But the team thinks some marks are hidden.

The team used the newest maps of Mercury's surface. They looked at how rough or smooth each area is. Rough areas are usually newer. The team found that rough areas have fewer shrink marks. Rock and dust from newer craters^*3 may have fallen on the old marks and covered them.

The team then changed its numbers to allow for the hidden marks. The new result was up to 30 percent^*4 bigger than earlier estimates^*5. Mercury's radius may have shrunk by nearly 12 kilometers.

This result will help scientists study how Mercury's inside cooled and what its core^*6 is made of. Japan and Europe are working together on a Mercury mission^*7 called BepiColombo. Scientists expect that its data^*8 will make a more detailed study possible. The team also says that the moon and other worlds made of rock may hide shrink marks in the same way.

1. *1 radius: the distance from the center of a round thing to its outside
2. *2 journal: a magazine where scientists print their studies
3. *3 craters: big round holes made when rocks from space hit the ground
4. *4 percent: a part out of 100
5. *5 estimates: careful guesses about a number
6. *6 core: the center part deep inside a planet
7. *7 mission: a trip to space to study something
8. *8 data: facts and numbers that scientists collect

Tesla is an American car company. On September 5, 2026, its Japanese arm, Tesla Japan, said it is showing a new car called the Cybercab in Japan for the first time. The Cybercab is a car for Robotaxi, a taxi service with no driver.

The Cybercab was designed from the start as a taxi with no driver. It was never meant to be driven by a person. It has two seats, but it has no steering wheel^*1 and no pedals^*2. Its doors open upward, like the wings of a butterfly. Inside, it has a touchscreen^*3 in the center. It is the biggest touchscreen Tesla has ever put in a car.

In the United States, Tesla has already started making many of these cars. They will join the Robotaxi service there step by step.

People in Japan can see the Cybercab at an event called the Cybercab Japan Tour. The tour runs from September 11 to 28, 2026, and stops at four places in three cities. The first stop is in Aoyama, an area of Tokyo, the capital of Japan. The car is at OMAKASE Aoyama Garden by GMO from September 11 to 14. Next, it goes to Tesla Grand Front Osaka in Osaka, a big city in western Japan, from September 17 to 20. After that, it is at Tesla Nagoya Noritake in Nagoya, a city in Aichi in central Japan, on September 22 and 23. The last stop is Tesla Shinjuku in Shinjuku, another area of Tokyo, from September 26 to 28.

At each place, Tesla is also showing the Model 3 and the Model Y. These are two Tesla cars that people can buy in Japan.

1. *1 steering wheel: the wheel a driver turns with the hands to make a car go left or right
2. *2 pedals: the parts under a driver's feet that make a car go faster or stop
3. *3 touchscreen: a screen you control by touching it with your fingers