A Shattered Surface
Mercury is the first of the 4 inner planets. It is named after 'Mercury,' the mythological Roman god of travel and thievery. This is probaly because it is the fastest moving planet in our Solar System. It has a diameter of 4,878km at its equator and is approximately 58,000,000km (on average) from the Sun. It orbits the Sun every 88 Earth days.
Because of Mercury's closeness to the Sun, life as we know it would not be able to survive. The day time temperatures can reach up to 477°C and -138°C at night. Mercury is the second most dense of all the planets, after Earth, making it's force of gravity about one third that of Earth. The surface is smooth but full of many deep craters. These craters were formed when meteors or small comets crashed into Mercury's surface. The 'Caloris Basin' is the largest known crater on Mercury and one of the largest impact basins in the Solar System at about 1500km in diameter.
Mercury is the first of the 4 inner planets. It is named after 'Mercury,' the mythological Roman god of travel and thievery. This is probaly because it is the fastest moving planet in our Solar System. It has a diameter of 4,878km at its equator and is approximately 58,000,000km (on average) from the Sun. It orbits the Sun every 88 Earth days.
Because of Mercury's closeness to the Sun, life as we know it would not be able to survive. The day time temperatures can reach up to 477°C and -138°C at night. Mercury is the second most dense of all the planets, after Earth, making it's force of gravity about one third that of Earth. The surface is smooth but full of many deep craters. These craters were formed when meteors or small comets crashed into Mercury's surface. The 'Caloris Basin' is the largest known crater on Mercury and one of the largest impact basins in the Solar System at about 1500km in diameter.
Orbit
Mercury's orbit around the Sun is not a proper circle. During its orbit, it is 46 million kilometers from the sun at one point and 70 million kilometers from the sun at another.
Atmosphere
Mercury's atmosphere is constantly escaping and being reformed. It's atmosphere is reformed when solar wind lets off particles from Mercury. However, the atmosphere keeps escaping because of Mercury’s high temperature.
Structure
At the heart of Mercury, the inner core is found. This core is made of solid iron and is very dense and large. The core has a radius of 1,800km. It is surrounded by the molten, meaning liquid, outer core which spans 600km thick. The crust covers the entire surface of Mercury. It is smaller than Earth's crust, at only 100-200km thick.