Amazing Facts about Mercury

Mercury completes three rotations about its axis, for every two orbits of the Sun.  It is the closest planet to the Sun and up until 1965 it was thought that the same side of Mercury constantly faces the Sun.  In a century, Mercury can be observed from Earth for thirteen times, passing across the face of the Sun in an event called transit.

Amazing facts about Mercury.

1.  Mercury’s distance from the sun ranges from 46 to 70 million km and has the highest orbital eccentricity of all the planets.

2.  One day on Mercury is equivalent to 176 days on the Earth and this is interesting- a year in the planet is just 88 days.

3.  Mercury is one of the five planets visible with naked eye and it is the smallest planet in the solar system.

4.  Mercury is the second densest planet in the solar system, after the Earth.  It has a density of 5.4 grams per each cubic centimeter.  Mercury is mostly composed of rocks and heavy metals due to which it has a high density.

5.  The surface of Mercury became wrinkled as the iron core of the planet cooled and contracted.  These wrinkles are named as Lobate Scarps by scientists, and they can be up to a mile high.

6.  Despite being closer to the Sun at a distance of 58 million km,  Mercury is the second hottest planet.  Venus is the hottest planet in the solar system.

7.  Mercury is the smallest planet in the solar system, which is slightly larger than Earth’s moon.

8.  Mercury’s atmosphere is composed mostly of sodium, hydrogen, helium, potassium and oxygen.

9.  If you see the Sun from Mercury’s surface, it would appear three times more larger than  it does on Earth.

10.  Existence of life is impossible on Mercury as the temperature varies from 427 °C to -173 °C.

11.  As  the planet is very near to the Sun, it is very difficult to visit it, only two spacecrafts have visited Mercury, which are Mariner 10 and Messenger probe.

12.  Mercury’s orbit is highly eccentric, at aphelion it is 70 million km from the Sun but at perihelion it is only  46 million km.

13.  Mercury has a magnetic field, Mariner 10 detected a faint magnetic field around Mercury.

14.  Mercury’s surface is similar to that of Moon’s, which is very barren, rocky surface covered with many craters.

Statistical facts about Mercury

15.  Mercury is very much lighter than Earth, it has a mass of 330,104,000,000,000 billion kg.

16.  Mercury has an equatorial diameter of 4,879 kilometers.

17.  Mercury has an polar diameter of 4,879 kilometers.

18.  Mercury has an equatorial circumference of 15,329 kilometers.

19.  87.97 Earth days is the orbit period of Mercury.

20. 57,909,227 kilometers is the orbit distance of Mercury.

21.  Mercury has no satellites, making it one of the few planets of that kind.

22.  Mercury surface temperature varies from -173 to 427 °C.

Also read: All the articles on Amazing facts about Nature and Planets