Mercury is the smallest planet in our solar system and nearest to the Sun. It is only slightly larger than Earth's moon. Despite nearest to the Sun, Mercury is not the hottest planet in our solar system but it is the fastest revolves around the Sun.
Some interesting facts:-
- A day on the surface of Mercury exists 176 Earth days.
- Mercury completes one revolution in 88 earth days. This means a year on Mercury exists 88 Earth days.
- Mercury is not tidally locked to the Sun, also known as a gravitational lock.
- Mercury revolves so quickly around the Sun that early civilizations believed that it was actually two completely different stars – one which appeared in the morning and another which appeared in the evening.
- Mercury is the smallest planet within the solar system having a diameter of 4,879 km and is one in five planets that is visible by the naked eye.
- Mercury is the second densest planet after the earth in the solar system. Despite its small size, Mercury is very dense because it is composed mainly of heavy metals and rock.
- Your weight on Mercury would be 38% of your weight on Earth.
- The Mercury has just 38% of the gravity on Earth. This means that Mercury isn’t able to hold the atmosphere and it gets blown away by solar winds. However those same solar winds are also replenishing the atmosphere by gases and dust.
- Mercury has a very thin atmosphere.
- Mercury has no moons because of its low gravity.
- The orbit of Mercury is an ellipse rather than circular. It has the most eccentric orbit in the solar system and the least circular in all of the planets, according to scientists.
- Mercury is the second hottest planet while Mercury is nearest to the sun. This is because Mercury has no atmosphere to regulate temperature and results in the most extreme temperature change – ranging from -170°C during the night to 430°C during the day.
- Mercury does not experience any seasons. because The axis of Mercury has the smallest tilt in solar system.
- Mercury is nearly tidally locked to the Sun.
- The orbit of Mercury was important in proving Albert Einstein’s theory of General Relativity.
- Mercury has a large iron core that is around 40% of its volume in its center whose radius is 1800 to 1900 kilometers.
- The outer shell(the mantle and crust) of Mercury is only 500 to 600 kilometers thick. Earth’s outer shell (the mantle and crust) is 2930 kilometers thick.
- Mercury has a very weak magnetic field whose strength is about 1% of the magnetic field on Earth.
- It is difficult to reach the Mercury due to its proximity to the Sun and any spacecraft visiting would need to travel 91 million kilometers into the Sun’s gravitational field.
- Only two spacecraft have ever visited to mercury. which is Mariner 10 (1974-75) and MESSENGER (2004).
