Introduction
Mercury is the first planet in our solar system, orbiting a mere 58 million km from the Sun. Despite this, temperature on the planet can drop to almost -200 degree celsius at night. This is because mecury is little more
than a floating rock, with barely ant atmostphere and no life under its scarred surface.
Hidden Planet
Mercury is a very difficult planet to explore. It is normally obscured by the Sun's glare when viewed from Earth. Even the Hubble Space Telescope cannot observe the planet because the strength of the Sun rays may damage its equipments. Only one probe, Mariner 10, has made it as far as Mercury, although its flight path meant that it could only photograph one side of the planet. The other half we know very little about.
(click here to get the image)
Some important facts
1) Crater are formed by space rocks, called meteorites, hitting the surface of a planet or moon.
2) When a rock crashes into a planet like Mercury, it creates an enormous dent in the ground.
3) Vast quantities of material are blasted out of the hole and form rings of mountains around the crater.
4) Mercury takes 59 days to spin once on its axis. However, by the time it has spun once it has also travelled two- thirds of its 88- day orbit around the Sun. because of this, the time from one mid day to the next on Mercury is 176 days. a person born on mercury would be 2 years older each day!
5) Some meteorite impacts have been so powerful that they have sent shockwaves through the planet and created mountain ranges on the other side.
6) Radar imaging of the planet has revealed areas of high reflectivity near the planet's poles. Scientists believe this may be ice.
Mercury's orbit
Mercury's orbit cloase to the Sun means that it has the greatest variation between day and night temperature of any planet in the Solar System. During the day the surface temperature can reach 450oC(840oF). However, the lack of atmosphere on the planet means that heat cannot be retained at night, and the temperature can drop by over 600oC. Parts of mercury becomes so cold that some scientists believe there is ice on the planet. meteorites may have carried water to Mercury's surface, and ice may have formed in deep, shadowed craters that never see the Sun.
A dead planet
All planets are born from countless collisions of rocks and space debris. They are formed with the heat of this collisions locked deep within their cores. A planet is "alive" as long it retains this heat within it. We can tell whether this is the case by looking for volcanic activity. Mercury, like our moon, has a heavily cratered face, which shows that there has been no volcanic activity on the planet for billions of years. This makes Mercury a dead planet.
Facts and figures
Diameter: 4,877 km (3,031 mi)
Distance from Sun: 58 millions km(36 million mi)
Average surface temperature: 170o (340oF)
Surface gravity: 0.38 x Earth
Length of orbit: 88 Earth days
Length of day: 1,408 Earth hours
Mass: 0.055 x Earth
Density (water= 1): 5.42
Number of moon: 0
Number of rings: 0
Mercury is the first planet in our solar system, orbiting a mere 58 million km from the Sun. Despite this, temperature on the planet can drop to almost -200 degree celsius at night. This is because mecury is little more
than a floating rock, with barely ant atmostphere and no life under its scarred surface.
Hidden Planet
Mercury is a very difficult planet to explore. It is normally obscured by the Sun's glare when viewed from Earth. Even the Hubble Space Telescope cannot observe the planet because the strength of the Sun rays may damage its equipments. Only one probe, Mariner 10, has made it as far as Mercury, although its flight path meant that it could only photograph one side of the planet. The other half we know very little about.
Some important facts
1) Crater are formed by space rocks, called meteorites, hitting the surface of a planet or moon.
2) When a rock crashes into a planet like Mercury, it creates an enormous dent in the ground.
3) Vast quantities of material are blasted out of the hole and form rings of mountains around the crater.
4) Mercury takes 59 days to spin once on its axis. However, by the time it has spun once it has also travelled two- thirds of its 88- day orbit around the Sun. because of this, the time from one mid day to the next on Mercury is 176 days. a person born on mercury would be 2 years older each day!
5) Some meteorite impacts have been so powerful that they have sent shockwaves through the planet and created mountain ranges on the other side.
6) Radar imaging of the planet has revealed areas of high reflectivity near the planet's poles. Scientists believe this may be ice.
Mercury's orbit
Mercury's orbit cloase to the Sun means that it has the greatest variation between day and night temperature of any planet in the Solar System. During the day the surface temperature can reach 450oC(840oF). However, the lack of atmosphere on the planet means that heat cannot be retained at night, and the temperature can drop by over 600oC. Parts of mercury becomes so cold that some scientists believe there is ice on the planet. meteorites may have carried water to Mercury's surface, and ice may have formed in deep, shadowed craters that never see the Sun.
A dead planet
All planets are born from countless collisions of rocks and space debris. They are formed with the heat of this collisions locked deep within their cores. A planet is "alive" as long it retains this heat within it. We can tell whether this is the case by looking for volcanic activity. Mercury, like our moon, has a heavily cratered face, which shows that there has been no volcanic activity on the planet for billions of years. This makes Mercury a dead planet.
Facts and figures
Diameter: 4,877 km (3,031 mi)
Distance from Sun: 58 millions km(36 million mi)
Average surface temperature: 170o (340oF)
Surface gravity: 0.38 x Earth
Length of orbit: 88 Earth days
Length of day: 1,408 Earth hours
Mass: 0.055 x Earth
Density (water= 1): 5.42
Number of moon: 0
Number of rings: 0
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