|
|
Sun |
|
Mercury |
|
Venus |
|
Earth |
|
Mars |
|
Jupiter |
 |
Saturn |
|
Uranus |
|
Neptune |
 |
Pluto |
| Compare Planet Stats | |
| Compare Planet Sizes | |
| Compare Planets & Stars | |
| What is a Light Year? | |
|
||||||||||||
Ther Planet Mercury |
||||||||||||
| Mercury is an extreme planet: the smallest, the densest, the one with the oldest surface, the one with the largest daily variations in surface temperature, and the least explored. |
||||||||||||
| Mercury is the closest planet to our Sun. It is named for the ancient Roman god of trade and profit. Legend says Mercury's winged sandals gave him super speed. Mercury the planet is super fast, too. It zips around the Sun every 88 days - faster than any other planet. No wonder it got its name from the quickest of the ancient gods. |
||||||||||||
Mercury is just over a third as far from the sun as the Earth is; it is 0.387 A.U. from the sun (on average). Mercury's orbit is very eccentric; at aphelion (the point in the orbit farthest from the sun) Mercury is 70 million km from the sun, at perihelion Mercury is 46 million km from the sun. There are no seasons on Mercury. Seasons are caused by the tilt of the axis relative to the planet's orbit. Since Mercury's axis is directly perpendicular to its motion (not tilted), it has no seasons. |
||||||||||||
