Mercury is the closest planet to the sun. It rotates around the sun quicker than any other planet. Mercury is named after the swift footed messenger God Mercury. Mercury was discovered approximately 5,000 years ago. Mercury was given two different names for how it appeared as a morning star and an evening star. Mercury has many distinct physical characteristics. The surface temperature can reach 840 degrees Fahrenheit. Temperatures of the planet at night time can drop down to negative 275 F. Mercury is the smallest planet out of all eight planets. It's a little bit bigger than the Moon of the Earth and is blemished with craters. Mercury has very little atmosphere to stop and prevent impacts. The planet is covered with craters, similar to the moon. The diameter and equator is 4.89 times 10^3 km) and is 0.382 of Earth's distance. The volume is 60,827,208,742. The radius of Mercury is 1,516 miles. The mass of this planet is 330,104,000,000,000,000,000,000. Mercury is the lightest planet in the entire solar system because it has a mass of 3.30*1023 kg. Its gravity is 3.7 m/s². It's gravity is only about one-third of Earth's because its mass is quite smaller than Earth's mass. The tidal influence on it from the sun is the strongest since Mercury is closest to the Sun. The difference in the gravitational pull of the Sun on the near and far sides of Mercury are stronger than for any other of the eight planets. Mercury is closest to the sun Mercury's crust is extremely thin. It's much thinner than Earth's crust. The planets outer shell is only 300 to 400 miles (500 to 600 km) thick. The composition of this planet is made up of roughly 70% metals and 30% silicate material. It's a little less dense than the Earth, with 5.43 g/cm3. It has a distinct metallic core that is essential for its large size. Mercury has a very large metallic core than the Earth. Its core is mainly solid and it has close to a magnetic field. Mercury was known since at least Sumerian times which was approximately 5,000 years ago. It was always associated with Nabu , The god of writing. There was a unanticipated discovery Mariner 10 made was that Mercury had a magnetic field. Planets hypothetically create magnetic fields if they spin fast and have a molten core. Mercury takes 59 days to rotate. It rotates around the sun every 88 Earth days. It travels through space at virtually 112,000 mph faster than any other planet. The orbit is highly elliptical and shaped like an oval. There are no moons on Mercury. There are several reasons why Mercury doesn't have any moons. In the early 1970s, astronomers believed that Mercury might have a moon. The were large amounts of Ultraviolet radiation that astronomers said '' had no right to be there'' discovered from instruments on board NASA's Mariner 10 spacecraft. However, the next day the radiation disappeared. A few Astronomers thought that this was radiation coming from a moon, but in reality it was later detected to be a more distant star. Gravity on Mercury is 38% of the gravity on planet Earth. Since Mercury is only a little bit larger than our moon, you would probably think that its gravity would be similar to the moon's at 16% . A man that weighs 980 newtons on Earth would just weigh roughly 372 Newtons landing on the surface of the planet. Mercury has the fourth strongest gravitational pull on the Earth. The pull of Mercury is 7.4 percent of the gravitational pull of Jupiter. The gravitational pull on Mercury at the surface is 0.38 times that of Earth.
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