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MERCURY
MERCURY
Mercury is the smallest planet in our solar system. It’s just a little bigger than
Earth’s moon. It is the closest planet to the sun, but it’s actually not the
hottest. Venus is hotter.
Along with Venus, Earth, and Mars, Mercury is one of the rocky planets. It
has a solid surface that is covered with craters. It has a thin atmosphere,
and it doesn’t have any moons. Mercury likes to keep things simple.
This small planet spins around slowly compared to Earth, so one day lasts a
long time. Mercury takes 59 Earth days to make one full rotation. A year on
Mercury goes by fast. Because it’s the closest planet to the sun, it doesn’t
take very long to go all the way around. It completes one revolution around
the sun in just 88 Earth days. If you lived on Mercury, you’d have a birthday
every three months.
A day on Mercury is not like a day here on Earth. For us, the sun rises and
sets each and every day. Because Mercury has a slow spin and short year,
it takes a long time for the sun to rise and set there. Mercury only has one
sunrise every 180 Earth days! Isn't that weird?
Structure and Surface
Mercury has been known since ancient times because it can be seen
without advanced telescopes.
Mercury has been visited by two spacecraft: Mariner 10 and
MESSENGER.
What does Mercury look like?
This picture of Mercury has colors added so you can better see the surface
differences and craters.
MERCURY PLANET PROFILE
Diameter: 4,879 km
Moons: None
Orbit Distance: 57,909,227 km (0.39 AU)
Mercury is the closest planet to the Sun and due to its proximity it is not
easily seen except during twilight. For every two orbits of the Sun, Mercury
completes three rotations about its axis and up until 1965 it was thought that
the same side of Mercury constantly faced the Sun. Thirteen times a century
Mercury can be observed from the Earth passing across the face of the Sun
in an event called a transit, the next will occur on the 9th May 2016.
Mercury Diagrams
Mercury has little atmosphere, but what it does have is made up mostly of
oxygen, sodium, hydrogen, helium and potassium.
The thin atmosphere, or exosphere, does little to prevent or slow down
impacts from extraterrestrial objects, leaving the surface littered with craters.
In appearance it is similar to Earth's Moon.
The planet is terrestrial, meaning that it has a solid surface and is mainly
made of silicate rocks or metals. The planet Mercury is mainly made up of
iron.
Mercury has no moons. The planet's close proximity to the Sun makes
having moons impossible, as the star's strong gravitational pull would likely
pull them out of the planet's orbit.
Mercury is one of the five classical planets visible with the naked eye and is
named after the swift-footed Roman messenger god. It is not known exactly
when the planet was first discovered - although it was first observed through
telescopes in the seventeenth century by astronomers Galileo Galilei and
Thomas Harriot.
Only two spacecraft, both robotic and launched by NASA, have visited
Mercury so far, making it the least explored terrestrial planet. Mariner 10
launched in 1973 and imaged around 45% of the planet's surface from 1974
until its end of mission in March 1975.
MESSENGER was launched in 2008 and entered Mercury's orbit in 2011,
making it the first spacecraft to do so. This mission lasted for four years
before the probe succumbed to the planet's gravity and impacted its surface
in 2015. It collected extensive data and images and transmitted them back
to Earth to be studied by scientists.
BepiColombo is a joint space mission by the European Space
Agency (ESA) and Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA), currently
proposed to be launched in 2018, with the aim to reach Mercury in
December 2025.
Why was Mercury named Mercury?
The Romans knew of seven bright objects in the sky: the Sun, the Moon,
and the five brightest planets. They named them after their most important
gods. Because Mercury was the fastest planet as it moved around the Sun,
it was named after the Roman messenger God Mercury. Mercury was also
the god of travelers. According to myth, he had a winged hat and sandals,
so he could fly. According to myth, he had a winged hat and sandals, so he
could fly.
What does Mercury smell like?
What does it look, feel, taste, or smell like?
It is very hot during the day (over 400°C) because Mercury is so close to the
Sun. At night it is very cold because Mercury loses almost all its heat since
there is almost no atmosphere to keep the warmth there. The temperature
can fall to almost -175°C.
What happens if you touch mercury?
Mercury is a very toxic or poisonous substance that people can be exposed
to in several ways. If it is swallowed, like from a broken thermometer, it
mostly passes through your body and very little is absorbed. If you touch it,
a small amount may pass through your skin, but not usually enough to
harm you.
These compounds have been implicated in causing brain and liver damage.
The most dangerous mercury compound, dimethyl mercury, is so toxic that
even a few microliters spilled on the skin, or even on a latex
glove, can cause death.
Reference:
https://www.space.com › 36-mercury-the-suns-closest-planetary-neighbor
https://space-facts.com › mercury
https://www.nhm.ac.uk/discover/planet-mercury.html