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Mercury

Mercury is the smallest and closest planet to the Sun, characterized by a rocky surface similar to the Moon and a trace atmosphere. It has a unique spin-orbit resonance resulting in a solar day lasting about 176 Earth days, with extreme temperature variations. The planet's faint magnetic field and high orbital eccentricity contribute to its varying sunlight intensity, and its permanently shadowed poles may harbor water ice.

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6 views1 page

Mercury

Mercury is the smallest and closest planet to the Sun, characterized by a rocky surface similar to the Moon and a trace atmosphere. It has a unique spin-orbit resonance resulting in a solar day lasting about 176 Earth days, with extreme temperature variations. The planet's faint magnetic field and high orbital eccentricity contribute to its varying sunlight intensity, and its permanently shadowed poles may harbor water ice.

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filemina.gjuzi
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© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Mercury is the first planet from the Sun. It is a rocky planet with a trace atmosphere.

While it is the smallest and least massive planet of the Solar System, its
surface gravity is slightly higher than that of Mars. The surface of Mercury is similar to
Earth's Moon, heavily cratered, with expansive rupes system, generated from thrust
faults, and bright ray systems, formed by ejecta. Its largest crater, Caloris Planitia, has
a diameter of 1,550 km (960 mi), which is about one-third the diameter of the planet
(4,880 km or 3,030 mi). Being the most inferior orbiting planet it appears in Earth's
sky, always close to the Sun, either as a "morning star" or an "evening star". It stays
most of the time the closest to all other planets and is the planet with the
highest delta-v needed to travel to from all other planets of the Solar System.
Mercury's sidereal year (88.0 Earth days) and sidereal day (58.65 Earth days) are in a
3:2 ratio. This relationship is called spin–orbit resonance, and sidereal here means
"relative to the stars". Consequently, one solar day (sunrise to sunrise) on Mercury
lasts for around 176 Earth days: twice the planet's sidereal year. This means that one
side of Mercury will remain in sunlight for one Mercurian year of 88 Earth days; while
during the next orbit, that side will be in darkness all the time until the next sunrise
after another 88 Earth days. Above the planet's surface is an extremely
tenuous exosphere and a faint magnetic field that is strong enough to deflect solar
winds. Combined with its high orbital eccentricity, the planet's surface has widely
varying sunlight intensity and temperature, with the equatorial regions ranging from
−170 °C (−270 °F) at night to 420 °C (790 °F) during sunlight. Due to the very
small axial tilt, the planet's poles are permanently shadowed. This strongly suggests
that water ice could be present in the craters.

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