Mercury (planet)

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Mercury (Hot planet) Astronomical symbol of mercury
Mercury
Mercury
Designations
Pronunciation how to say: /ˈmɜrkjəri/
Adjective Mercurian, Mercurial[1]
Orbital characteristics[4]
Epoch J2000
Aphelion 69,816,900 km
0.466 697 AU
Perihelion 46,001,200 km
0.307 499 AU
Semi-major axis 57,909,100 km
0.387 098 AU
Eccentricity 0.205 630[2]
Orbital period 87.969 1 d
(0.240 846 a)
Synodic period 115.88 d[2]
Average orbital speed 47.87 km/s[2]
Mean anomaly 174.796°
Inclination 7.005° to Ecliptic
3.38° to Sun’s equator
6.34° to Invariable plane[3]
Longitude of ascending node 48.331°
Argument of perihelion 29.124°
Satellites None
Physical characteristics
Mean radius 2,439.7 ± 1.0 km[5][6]
0.3829 Earths
Flattening < 0.0006[6]
Surface area 7.48×107 km²
0.147 Earths[5]
Volume 6.083×1010 km³
0.054 Earths[5]
Mass 3.3022×1023 kg
0.055 Earths[5]
Mean density 5.427 g/cm³[5]
Equatorial surface gravity 3.7 m/s²
0.38 g[5]
Escape velocity 4.25 km/s[5]
Sidereal rotation period 58.646 day
1407.5 h[5]
Equatorial rotation velocity 10.892 km/h (3.026 m/s)
Axial tilt 2.11′ ± 0.1′[7]
North pole right ascension 18 h 44 min 2 s
281.01°[2]
North pole declination 61.45°[2]

Mercury is the smallest planet in the Solar System.[8][9][10] It is the closest planet to the sun.[11] It makes one trip around the Sun once every 87.969 days.[2][12] Mercury is bright when it is visible from Earth, ranging from −2.0 to 5.5 in apparent magnitude. It cannot be easily seen as it is usually too close to the Sun. Because Mercury is normally lost in the glare of the Sun (except during a solar eclipse), Mercury can only be seen in the morning or evening twilight.[13]

Compared to what is known about the other planets in the Solar System, little is known about Mercury. Telescopes on the Earth show only a small, bright crescent. The first of two spacecraft to visit the planet was Mariner 10,[14] which mapped only about 45% of the planet’s surface from 1974 to 1975. The second is the MESSENGER spacecraft, which mapped another 30% during its trip to Mercury on January 14, 2008. MESSENGER made one more pass by Mercury in 2009, and is now orbiting the planet to complete the mapping.

Mercury looks a lot like Earth's Moon. It has many craters with areas of smooth plains, no moons around it and no atmosphere as we know it. However, Mercury does have an extremely thin atmosphere, known as an exosphere.[11] Unlike Earth's moon, Mercury has a large iron core, which gives off a magnetic field about 1% as strong as that of the Earth.[15] It is a very dense planet due to the large size of its core. Surface temperatures can be anywhere from about 90 to 700 K (−183 °C to 427 °C, −297 °F to 801 °F),[16] with the subsolar point being the hottest and the bottoms of craters near the poles being the coldest.

Known sightings of Mercury date back to at least the first millennium BC. Before the 4th century BC, Greek astronomers thought that Mercury was two different objects: one able to be seen only at sunrise, which they called Apollo; the other that was only able to be seen at sunset, which they called Hermes.[17] The English name for the planet is from the Romans, who named it after the Roman god Mercury, which they thought to be the same as the Greek god Hermes. The symbol for Mercury is based on Hermes' staff.[18]

Even though Mercury is the closest planet to the Sun, it is not the warmest. This is because it has no atmosphere, so any heat that the Sun gives to it quickly escapes into space.[19]

Contents

Inside Mercury [change]

Mercury is one of four inner planets in the Solar System, and has a rocky body like the Earth. It is the smallest planet in the Solar System, with a radius of 2,439.7 km.[2] Mercury is even smaller than some of the largest moons in the solar system, such as Ganymede and Titan. However, it has a greater mass than the largest moons in the solar system. Mercury is made of about 70% metallic and 30% silicate material.[20] Mercury's density is the second highest in the Solar System at 5.427 g/cm³, only a little bit less than Earth’s.[2]

Other pages [change]

Other websites [change]

References [change]

  1. ↑ "mercurial". Merriam-Webster Online. http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/mercurial. Retrieved 2008-06-12.
  2. ↑ 2.00 2.01 2.02 2.03 2.04 2.05 2.06 2.07 2.08 2.09 2.10 "Mercury Fact Sheet". NASA Goddard Space Flight Center. November 30, 2007. http://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/planetary/factsheet/mercuryfact.html. Retrieved 2008-05-28.
  3. ↑ "The MeanPlane (Invariable plane) of the Solar System passing through the barycenter". 2009-04-03. http://home.comcast.net/~kpheider/MeanPlane.gif. Retrieved 2009-04-03. (produced with Solex 10 written by Aldo Vitagliano; see also Invariable plane)
  4. ↑ Yeomans, Donald K. (April 7, 2008). "HORIZONS System". NASA JPL. http://ssd.jpl.nasa.gov/?horizons. Retrieved 2008-04-07.
  5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 5.3 5.4 5.5 5.6 5.7 Munsell, Kirk; Smith, Harman; Harvey, Samantha (May 28, 2009). "Mercury: Facts & Figures". Solar System Exploration. NASA. http://solarsystem.nasa.gov/planets/profile.cfm?Object=Mercury&Display=Facts. Retrieved 2008-04-07.
  6. ↑ 6.0 6.1 Seidelmann, P. Kenneth; Archinal, B. A.; A’hearn, M. F.; et al. (2007). "Report of the IAU/IAGWorking Group on cartographic coordinates and rotational elements: 2006". Celestial Mechanics and Dynamical Astronomy 90: 155–180. doi:10.1007/s10569-007-9072-y. http://adsabs.harvard.edu/doi/10.1007/s10569-007-9072-y. Retrieved 2007-08-28.
  7. ↑ Margot, L.J.; Peale, S. J.; Jurgens, R. F.; Slade, M. A.; Holin, I. V. (2007). "Large Longitude Libration of Mercury Reveals a Molten Core". Science 316: 710–714. doi:10.1126/science.1140514. PMID 17478713. http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2007Sci...316..710M.
  8. ↑ "Mercury  l  Mercury facts, pictures and information.". nineplanets.org. 2011 [last update]. http://nineplanets.org/mercury.html. Retrieved 7 March 2012.
  9. ↑ "BBC Solar System - Mercury: A tortured world close to our blazing Sun". bbc.co.uk. 2012 [last update]. http://www.bbc.co.uk/science/space/solarsystem/sun_and_planets/mercury_(planet). Retrieved 7 March 2012.
  10. ↑ Pluto was once thought to be the smallest, but, as of 2006, Pluto is now known as a dwarf planet.
  11. ↑ 11.0 11.1 Murchie, Scott L.; Vervack Jr., Ronald J.; Anderson, Brian J. (March 2011), "Space Science: Journey to the Innermost Planet", Scientific American (New York) 304 (3): 26-31
  12. ↑ [1]
  13. ↑ How it Works Book of Space. Imagine Publishing. 2010. p. 36-37. ISBN 9781906078829.
  14. ↑ [2]
  15. ↑ "Mercury magnetic field". C. T. Russell & J. G. Luhmann. http://www-spc.igpp.ucla.edu/personnel/russell/papers/merc_mag/. Retrieved 2007-03-16.
  16. ↑ "Background Science". European Space Agency. http://sci.esa.int/science-e/www/category/index.cfm?fcategoryid=4586. Retrieved 2008-05-23.
  17. ↑ Dunne, J. A. and Burgess, E. (1978). "Chapter One". The Voyage of Mariner 10 — Mission to Venus and Mercury. NASA History Office. http://history.nasa.gov/SP-424/ch1.htm.
  18. ↑ Duncan, John Charles (1946). Astronomy: A Textbook. Harper & Brothers. pp. 125. "The symbol for Mercury represents the Caduceus, a wand with two serpents twined around it, which was carried by the messenger of the gods."
  19. ↑ "CBBC Newsround". British Broadcasting Corporation. http://www.bbc.co.uk/newsround/14143062. Retrieved February 04, 2012.
  20. ↑ Strom, Strom, Robert G.; Sprague, Ann L. (2003). Exploring Mercury: The Iron Planet. p. 52. ISBN 1852337311.

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