Mercury: Facts about the smallest planet
Mercury is the closest planet Sun And the smallest planet in us Solar system.. Mercury, about 3,032 miles (4,880 kilometers) in diameter, is less than half that size. Earth, The diameter is about 7,926 miles (12,756 km). But what Mercury lacks in size makes up for with velocity: it orbits the Sun faster than any other planet in our solar system.
How did Mercury give it its name?
The planet is named after the Roman god Mercury, the speedy messenger of the Roman gods, the Greek god Hermes. Mercury orbits the Sun every 88 days — faster than any other planet in our solar system — and Mercury’s year is less than three months on Earth.According to this rapid orbit, it urged the ancient Romans to associate a small planet with Mercury. Cool cosmosOn a website operated by the Infrared Processing and Analysis Center of the California Institute of Technology, the ancient Greeks associated the planet with Hermes. European Southern Observatory..
Mercury appears in night sky It has been known to humans around the world for thousands of years without a telescope. Summers created one of the earliest known records of the planet around 3,000 BC. Cool cosmos..
Is Mercury the hottest planet?
Mercury is the closest planet to the Sun, so you might think it’s the hottest planet.But to Mercury atmosphere Like the Earth, which can trap and retain heat, the side facing away from the Sun is always very cold. In particular, it takes about 59 Earth days for the slowly rotating Mercury to complete its rotation. Mercury surface temperatures can reach 800 degrees Fahrenheit (427 degrees Celsius) during the day, but can drop to minus 290 degrees Celsius (minus 179 degrees Celsius) at night. NASA..
VenusThe second planet from the Sun is the hottest planet because it has a dense atmosphere that retains the heat from the sun’s rays.Venus The surface temperature is about 860 degrees Fahrenheit (462 degrees Celsius). Live Science previously reported that it maintains its heat both day and night.
Related: The sun exploded Mercury with plasma waves
What is Mercury made of?
According to, mercury is mainly composed of iron Natural History Museum In London, England, it has an inner core with an outer core of liquid metal, surrounded by a mantle and crust like the Earth.Mercury’s inner core is solid and close to Earth’s size, but despite the fact that Mercury is a much smaller planet overall, a 2019 study was published in the journal. Geophysics Research Letter found.
Instead of a complete atmosphere, Mercury has an exosphere. This is the name given only to the thin outer layers of the Earth’s atmosphere. According to NASA, Mercury’s exosphere is formed by the solar wind, and meteoroids explode atoms from their surface.The exosphere gives Mercury little protection from objects like asteroids, and the planets are crater-poked, so Mercury looks like Earth. Moon.. According to the Natural History Museum in London, Mercury is so close to the Sun that the gravity of the Sun can pull it apart, so there are no satellites orbiting Mercury.
What is Mercury Retrograde?
Mercury’s retrograde looks like the planet is moving backwards in the sky, but it’s not. This is an optical illusion that arises from a human point of view. A small planet catches up and passes through the earth Live Science previously reported as it circles around the sun. Some Mercury scholars associate Mercury with retrograde It disrupts everyday life on Earth, but there is no scientific evidence for this.
“The idea that gravity from these very distant objects somehow affects our lives does not work within the framework of physics,” said a professor of astronomy and planetary science at the University of California, Los Angeles. Jean-Luc Margot says. I told live science before.
The retrograde illusion occurs on other planets through which the Earth passes, and it is not uncommon. The retrograde period for Mercury in 2022 is from January 13th to February 3rd, May 10th to June 2nd, September 9th to October 1st, and December 28th to January 18th (2023). Year). Old Farmers Almanac..
Related: Mercury probe takes stunning pictures of our planet during the Earth’s flyby
Does Mercury have life?
Scientists still have a lot to learn about Mercury, but there is no reason to think it is life-threatening. According to Mercury, the scorching heat and sub-zero temperatures, and its abundant solar radiation, can be too extreme for living organisms to handle. NASA.. In addition, thanks to probes like the MESSENGER (Mercury surface, space environment, geochemistry, and range-finding) spacecraft, about 98% of Mercury’s surface was photographed in detail. Messenger Website.
MESSENGER confirmed evidence of Mercury’s frozen water in 2011. The ice is concentrated in the poles of the craters and is therefore protected from the sun’s rays. Much of this ice may have been carried to Mercury on an asteroid.However, the 2020 survey Astrophysical Journal Letter We have discovered that mercury can produce up to 10% of its own ice.
Method is as follows. On the surface of Mercury, there is a mineral called hydroxyl, which is a combination of oxygen (O) and hydrogen (H) atoms, which are energized by the extreme heat of the Sun and collide to form water (H2O) molecules. .. The sun also breaks down these molecules, but some drift around the planet, It becomes a cold crater below freezing point at the pole to form ice.LiveScience’s sister site Space.com previously reported.
“It’s a bit like the song’Hotel California’. Water molecules can check in to the shadows, but they can’t leave,” said a senior researcher professor at the Georgia Institute of Technology’s Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry. Thomas Orlando says. statement at the time.
Additional resources
To view the Mercury image gallery taken by the probe, NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory Website. For more information on Mercury’s retrograde illusion, watch the following short YouTube video. Vox.. For more information on the MESSENGER probe mission, see NASA Details. Messenger page..
Originally published on Live Science.
Mercury: Facts about the smallest planet
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