Search results
Results from the WOW.Com Content Network
The smallest planet in our solar system and nearest to the Sun, Mercury is only slightly larger than Earth's Moon. From the surface of Mercury, the Sun would appear more than three times as large as it does when viewed from Earth, and the sunlight would be as much as seven times brighter.
Mercury is the fastest planet in our solar system – traveling through space at nearly 29 miles (47 kilometers) per second. The closer a planet is to the Sun, the faster it travels. Since Mercury is the fastest planet and has the shortest distance to travel around the Sun, it has the shortest year of all the planets in our solar system – 88 ...
NASA’s real-time science encyclopedia of deep space exploration. Our scientists and far-ranging robots explore the wild frontiers of our solar system.
You are using an outdated browser. Please upgrade your browser to improve your experience.
Mercury is the closest planet to the Sun, and the smallest planet in our solar system - only slightly larger than Earth's Moon.
NASA’s real-time science encyclopedia of deep space exploration. Our scientists and far-ranging robots explore the wild frontiers of our solar system.
The mission focuses on fundamental science questions that can be best, or only, achieved by surface operations such as determining Mercury''s bulk composition, the nature of the magnetic field, surface history, internal structure, and surface-solar wind interactions.
Our solar system consists of our star, the Sun, and everything bound to it by gravity – the planets Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune; dwarf planets such as Pluto; dozens of moons; and millions of asteroids, comets, and meteoroids.
At its nearest to Earth, Venus is some 38 million miles (about 61 million kilometers) distant. But most of the time the two planets are farther apart; Mercury, the innermost planet, actually spends more time in Earth’s proximity than Venus. One more trick of perspective: how Venus looks through binoculars or a telescope.
Early ion thrusters, like those of SERT I and II, used mercury as a propellant. Though mercury is heavy and therefore able to provide greater momentum to the spacecraft, its toxicity makes it cumbersome to use and can sometimes contaminate the spacecraft.