October 2003 Escola Secundária da Cidadela, Cascais Portugal 1 Group “Catch a Star” 2003 Andreia Nascimento, 14 years Raquel Soares, 12 years

October 2003Escola Secundária da Cidadela, Cascais Portugal 2 Past From a Solar Nebula to the Solar System phobos.physics.uiowa.edu cosmos

October 2003Escola Secundária da Cidadela, Cascais Portugal 3 Future The Sun will “eat” Mercury when become a Red Giant Star at the end of its life

October 2003Escola Secundária da Cidadela, Cascais Portugal 4 Mythology In Roman mythology Mercury is the god of commerce, travel and thievery, the Roman counterpart of the Greek god Hermes, the messenger of the Gods. The planet probably received this name because it moves so quickly across the sky. He was seen as the god of the twilight or of the wind.

October 2003Escola Secundária da Cidadela, Cascais Portugal 5 Main characteristics Mercury is the closest planet to the sun. The orbit, or path, it takes around the sun is not in a circle like Earth. The path it takes is called an ellipse, which is like a circle that has been stretched out. For this reason, the distance from Mercury to the Sun varies from about 27 million miles at its closest, to about 41 million miles at its furthest. Mercury races around the Sun faster than any other planet. A Mercurian year (the time it takes for the planet to go once around the Sun), is only 88 Earth days Mercury is about a third of the size of Earth, yet its density is comparable to that of Earth. This indicates that Mercury has a large core roughly the size of Earth's moon or about 75% of the planet's radius. The core is likely composed of radius. 60 to 70% iron by mass Temperature variations on Mercury are the most extreme in the solar system ranging from 90 K to 700 K

October 2003Escola Secundária da Cidadela, Cascais Portugal 6 Get information about Mariner 10 eventually made three flybys of Mercury from 1974 to 1975 before running out of attitude control gas. The probe revealed Mercury as a heavily cratered world with a mass much greater than thought.

October 2003Escola Secundária da Cidadela, Cascais Portugal 7 Make an observation Transit of Mercury May 7th, 2003 Cascais - Portugal

October 2003Escola Secundária da Cidadela, Cascais Portugal 8 Mercury and Moon Mercury’s diameter is 40% larger than the Moon Mercury, like Moon is pocked with craters, contains hugh multi-ring basins, and many lava flows. The craters range in size from 100 meters (the smallest resolvable feature on Mariner 10 images) to 1,300 kilometers. Mercury never received the visit of a Man