Simple Facts About Mercury

2/25/2014
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Simple Facts About Mercury

                Mercury is the closest planet to the Sun. Its full day is about 59 Earth days, while its year is only 88 Earth days. Since it orbits the Sun in an elliptical fashion (as all the planets do), and circles in an oval fashion as well. It also extremely hot in the daytime (about 750 degrees) and is extremely freezing at night (about -300 degrees). This is because when the night falls, that part of Mercury cannot see the Sun, and when it is facing it gets the full blare (since so close of course!). It is a terrestrial planet and the surface is very rocky. But, if you were on the surface, the sky would look dark, but the sun would look dazzling white.  Surprisingly, this is because Mercury has no atmosphere as Earth does. The best time to see mercury with a telescope is in the evening on the horizon as the Sun is setting. This is because Mercury is right next to the Sun, which should make it easy to spot out during the sunset. Mercury is just one of the many amazing and interesting planets in the Solar system.  Isn't she?

 

Image taken from this article:  http://solarsystem.nasa.gov/multimedia/display.cfm?Category=Planets&IM_ID=10292