Named after the Roman god of commerce, travel and thievery, Mercury is the second smallest planet in the solar system, larger only than Pluto, the most distant planet in our solar system. If Earth were the size of a baseball, Mercury would be the size of a golf ball. Viewed from Mercury, the Sun would look almost three times as large as it does from Earth.
1. Mercury is the closest planet to the Sun
NASA/Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory/Carnegie Institution of Washington
Mercury speeds around the Sun in a wildly elliptical (non-circular) orbit that takes it as close as 47 million km and as far as 70 million km from the Sun. The planet completes a trip around the Sun every 88 days, speeding through space at nearly 50 km per second, faster than any other planet.
2. Mercury's existence has been known of since before the third century BC
NASA
The Greeks gave it two names, Apollo for when it appeared as a morning star and Hermes when it came as an evening star.
3. Mercury's surface very much resembles Earth's Moon
NASA/Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory/Carnegie Institution of Washington
Mercury is scarred by thousands of impact craters resulting from collisions with meteors. While there are areas of smooth terrain, there are also cliffs, some soaring up to a mile high, formed by ancient impacts.
4. Mercury has a large iron core which is most likely at least partially molten
NASA
Mercury's interior is made of a large iron core with a radius of 1,800 to 1,900 km, nearly 75 percent of the planet's diameter and nearly the size of Earth's Moon. Mercury's outer shell, comparable to Earth's outer shell (called the mantle) is only 500 to 600 km thick.
5. Mercury actually has a very thin atmosphere
NASA/Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory/Carnegie Institution of Washington
Merucry's atmosphere is made up of atoms blasted off its surface. Due to the heat of the planet, these atoms quickly escape into space. Thus unlike the Earth and Venus which have stable atmospheres, Mercury's atmosphere is constantly being replenished.
6. Mercury is a planet of extremes
NASA/Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory/Carnegie Institution of Washington
Temperature variations swing from 90 K to 700 K. It's hotter on Venus, but with less fluctuations. Mercuryalso has a very eccentric orbit; at perihelion it is only 46 million km from the Sun but at aphelion it is 70 million.
