Mercury By James Metz 2-22-17

Mercury is about 43 million miles from the Sun this is about one third of the distance from the Sun to earth Mercury is the closest planet to the Sun

The Diameter of Mercury is 3,030 miles and is actually shrinking! The crust is all one piece and because of this crumbles inward instead of moving around like earth’s crust.

The day length of Mercury is 59 earth days The year length is 88 earth days So for every two Mercury years it rotates about three times.

Mercury has a temperature average of -275 degrees Fahrenheit in the night and 840 degrees Fahrenheit in the day. But on the poles are always in complete darkness so they are way below freezing all the time, also Nasa reported to have seen ice in some craters.

Mercury has no moons or natural satellites but it does have the satellite Messenger orbiting and mapping it. Messenger started mapping in 2013

Mercury has no atmosphere and the surface is basically a scorched rock with many craters and some caves because of being so close to the Sun.

Mercury has a gravitational pull that is 38% of earth’s gravity. This is one of the reasons why it does not have a moon. Another reason is that the sun is to close for it to attract any moons

Pierre Grassend first observed Mercury crossing the Sun in 1631 with a telescope. Johannes Keplar predicted that Mercury would cross the Sun at that time. Mercury was also observed by the satellite Mariner 10 and mapped in 2013 by Messenger. This is something like what it looked like not sure if this is actually mercury but this is a good example of what he studied.

More unique facts about Mercury: It is the fastest planet It is the closest to the Sun but is still not the hottest (Venus is the hottest) No other planet is as close to the look or size of the Moon as Mercury is. Smallest planet now that Pluto is a dwarf planet Earth’s Moon Mercury

Recourses: https://www.nasa.gov/planetmercury https://www.space.com/ (multiple places on website) https://kepler.nasa.gov/Mission/JohannesKepler Jay R. wile, Exploring creation with physical science 2nd edition, Apologia Educational Ministries, Inc. 2009