All About Mercury

From Wikimedia

Mercury is the planet closest to the sun. It can be -280 F° at night and 800 F° during the day time. These surface temperature swings happen because there is almost no atmosphere. Two spacecrafts have visited Mercury. The first craft was named Mariner 10, it flew by the planet in the 1970s. The second craft named MESSENGER launched in 2004, It orbited mercury 4000 times in 4 years. Then it ran out of fuel and crashed into the planet on April 30 2015.

One year on Mercury is about 88 earth days. One day on Mercury is about 58d 15h 30m on earth. Mercury is one of the only planets to not have a moon. The planet looks a lot like the Earth’s moon because of its big craters. Mercury is a part of the few rocky planets. The planet consists of about 70% metallic and 30% silicate. The planet’s equator length is about 1,516 mi.

Mercury is about 14.6 trillion square miles. The planet is second to the most dense planet, at about 5.427 grams per cubic centimeter. It is 98% of earth’s density(earth is the most dense planet). The planet is very rich in iron. The planet is named after the Roman deity Mercury, the messenger to the gods.  More info at Wikipedia and NASA