Mercury is the closest planet to the Sun in our solar system right in front of Venus. Mercury was named after a Roman god but is also called Hermes in Greek mythology who is the messenger of the gods. This relates to Mercury because it orbits the sun faster than all the other planets. Mercury is an extremely interesting planet in our solar system. Ancient people who lived in Mesopotamia(current day Iraq) called the Sumerians, first saw the planet Mercury in 3rd millennium B.C. Many old astronomers had trouble finding Mercury in the sky with their telescopes because Mercury only appears on the horizon right before dawn and right before dusk. Early civilizations in Greece named the planet Apollo in the morning and Hermes in the evening. Another
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Mercury orbits the sun extremely fast but rotates slow. Mercury’s year or orbit around the sun is 88 Earth days and its day is 58.6 Earth days which is almost the time it takes Mercury to orbit the sun. Mercury has the most elliptical orbit of all the planets in our solar system since Pluto is now considered a dwarf planet. It’s perihelion or closest point to the sun is 46 million km and its aphelion or farthest point away from the sun is 70 million km. Mercury’s mass is 3.285 × 10^23 kg and its diameter is 4,880 km and is the second planet in the solar system next to Earth. Mercury is so dense because of its iron core which is about 75% of the diameter of the whole planet. Unlike Earth, Mercury has no tectonic plates under its surface. Mercury does not have a tilted axis that creates seasons like it does on Earth so some of the deep craters are shaded from the sun and get to be around -180 degrees Celcius. The range of temperature varies an extreme amount because some parts of the planet do not face the sun and some places on Mercury are constantly being beamed down on by the sun. Since Mercury is so close to the sun, it has no moons because everything that close to the sun is taken over by the sun's gravity. Mercury’s gravity is 0.4
Mercury orbits the sun extremely fast but rotates slow. Mercury’s year or orbit around the sun is 88 Earth days and its day is 58.6 Earth days which is almost the time it takes Mercury to orbit the sun. Mercury has the most elliptical orbit of all the planets in our solar system since Pluto is now considered a dwarf planet. It’s perihelion or closest point to the sun is 46 million km and its aphelion or farthest point away from the sun is 70 million km. Mercury’s mass is 3.285 × 10^23 kg and its diameter is 4,880 km and is the second planet in the solar system next to Earth. Mercury is so dense because of its iron core which is about 75% of the diameter of the whole planet. Unlike Earth, Mercury has no tectonic plates under its surface. Mercury does not have a tilted axis that creates seasons like it does on Earth so some of the deep craters are shaded from the sun and get to be around -180 degrees Celcius. The range of temperature varies an extreme amount because some parts of the planet do not face the sun and some places on Mercury are constantly being beamed down on by the sun. Since Mercury is so close to the sun, it has no moons because everything that close to the sun is taken over by the sun's gravity. Mercury’s gravity is 0.4