Facts About Mercury
There are a number of fascinating facts about mercury, which help us to understand the wonders of nature. Mercury being the closest planet to the sun is basically a baked, barren and battered planet.
Before studying the planet, scientists thought it to be a smooth surfaced planet but this misconception soon got cleared, when a space ship named Mariner 10(in 1973) took some photographs of Mercury and discovered it to be the most cratered planet in the entire solar system.
A crater on mercury called Beethoven is the largest crater in the solar system, and it has a diameter of 643km. Though the planet is mostly cratered, it possesses an exceptionally large flat area called Caloris Basin. It is highly astonishing to know that some of the craters have ice in them, despite the planet being so hot. This is because sunlight is unable to reach these parts due to the tilt and orbit of the planet. There is a high difference of temperature of about 600 degrees, between the hottest spots and the coldest spots on this planet.
Mercury takes about 88 earth days to complete its orbit around the sun and 58 earth days to spin once on its axis. Its speed is caused by the gravitational pull of the sun. One of the interesting facts about mercury is that, one year on mercury comprises of only a day and a half.
The planet is second smallest in the solar system with a diameter of 4879.4km. Its size is actually comparable to the size of the earth’s moon. Mercury is known to be windless and moonless with no atmosphere at all to spread sunlight through it, hence the sunlight reflects off its surface. The planet also possesses a slight magnetic field.
Mercury unlike other planets can only be seen just before sunset and just after sunrise. A person standing on the mercury would find the sun to be two and a half times larger, than as seen from the earth’s surface. Mercury is approximately 100 times closer to Sun as in comparison to Pluto, which is the farthest planet from the sun.
One of the surprising facts about mercury is that despite it being the nearest to the sun, it is not the hottest planet, Venus is hotter. Actually mercury is one of the coldest planets of our solar system.
In ancient Greek, mercury was believed to be two separate stars. The planet’s appearance at the time of sunrise was called Apollo and at the time of sunset was referred to as Hermes. Mercury is often associated with Greek God, Hermes, who is believed to be the messenger of Gods according to Roman mythology.