Mercury : The Closest Planet To Sun | Information And Facts

Mercury:

Mercury is the smallest planet and also the closest planet to the sun. As such, it circles the sun faster than all the other planets, which is why Romans named it after their swift-footed messenger god.

The Sumerians also knew of Mercury since at least 5,000 years ago. It was often associated with Nabu, the god of writing. Mercury was also given separate names for its appearance as both a morning star and as an evening star.

Mercury's Profile:

Radius: 2439.7 km

Distance From Sun: 57.91 million km

Mass: 3.285 × 10^23 kg

Physical Characteristics:

Since mercury is so close to the sun, its surface surface temperature can reach a scorching 840 degrees Fahrenheit (450 degrees Celsius). However, since this world doesn't have much of a real atmosphere to entrap any heat, at night temperatures can plummet to minus 275 F (minus 170 C), a temperature swing of more than 1,100 degrees F (600 degree C), the greatest in the solar system.

Size:

 The mercury is just slightly larger than earth's moon. Since it has no significant atmosphere to stop impacts, the planet is pockmarked with craters. About 4 billion years ago, an asteroid roughly 60 miles (100 kilometers) wide struck Mercury with an impact equal to 1 trillion 1-megaton bombs, creating a vast impact crater roughly 960 miles (1,550 km) wide. Known as the Caloris Basin, this crater could hold the entire state of Texas. Another large impact may have helped create the planet's odd spin.
The tiny planet is made up of a single continental plate over a cooling iron core. As the core cools, it solidifies, reducing the planet's volume and causing it to shrink. The process crumpled the surface, creating lobe-shaped scarps or cliffs, some hundreds of miles long and soaring up to a mile high, as well as Mercury's "Great Valley," which at about 620 miles long, 250 miles wide and 2 miles deep (1,000 by 400 by 3.2 km) is larger than Arizona's famous Grand Canyon and deeper than the Great Rift Valley in East Africa.

Composition And Structure:

According to Nasa( National Aeronautics and Space Administration ) the atmosphere of Mercury is a "surface-bound exosphere, essentially a vacuum." It contains 42 percent oxygen, 29 percent sodium, 22 percent hydrogen, 6 percent helium, 0.5 percent potassium, with possible trace amounts of argon, carbon dioxide, water, nitrogen, xenon, krypton and neon.

Magnetic field: Roughly 1 percent the strength of Earth's.

Internal structure: Iron core roughly 2,200 to 2,400 miles (3,600 to 3,800 km) wide. Outer silicate shell about 300 to 400 miles (500 to 600 km) thick.

Some Facts About Mercury:

• Mercury is the smallest planet of solar system.
• Mercury is the second most dense planet of solar system.
• Mercury is the second hottest planet in the solar system.
• Mercury has the highest number of craters among the all other planets.
•  An year on Mercury is only 88 days long.

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