Facts and Info about the Planet Mercury
The name Mercury is derived from the Roman god of science,
commerce and the patron of travellers. The choice of name was
probably due to the Planets high speed orbit. Mercury was once also known
by the Ancient Greeks as Apollo, or Hermes, depending on the time of day. The Ancient Greeks
referred to Mercury as Apollo "the
morning star", in the morning, and Hermes "the evening star", in
the evening. Due to Mercury's brightness and relative size in our
night sky it was easily mistaken for a star rather than a Planet,
in fact the ancients identified five so called rapidly
moving "wandering stars" which we can correctly identify as
Planets.
Although first observed at some time prior the 3rd millennium BC, most of the
info we know about Mercury is fairly recent, the majority of the
info only being obtained in 1974-1975 by the
US spacecraft Mariner 10. Only half of the Planets surface has
been mapped to date.
How far is the Planet Mercury away from the Sun ?
This is the closest planet in our Solar system to the Sun, the
average distance being 58 million Km (0.38 Au), Earth by
comparison is nearly three times this distance further away.
How big is it ?
The
Planet Mercury is not very big, it has a diameter of about 4880km
which is only about a third of the size of the Earth, it's a
mass is approximately 3.30e23 kg, most of this mass can be
accounted for by its very dense iron core. Of all the Planets, the
only one smaller in our Solar System is Pluto.
What is it like on
the surface of the Planet Mercury ?
There is a
very wide range of surface temperature on this Planet, varying from 427°C on the side
closest to the Sun to as low as -183°C on the side furthest away
from the Sun, the largest variance found on any of the Planets in
our Solar System. There is only a very slight atmosphere and the
surface is both desolate, and heavily cratered by past meteorite
impacts. It is hard to picture life ever evolving or existing in
such an inhospitable place with such extremely varying conditions.
Does the Planet
Mercury have any Moons ?
Although most
of the Planets in the Solar System posses multiple moons Mercury
is one of the few planets which has neither moons nor
satellites captive within it's gravity well.
Mercury a wandering star, the morning star and the evening star of the Ancient
Greeks
