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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.
The surface of Mercury is heavily cratered, as a result of countless impact events that have accumulated over billions of years. Its largest crater, Caloris Planitia, has a diameter of 1,550 km (960 mi), which is about one-third the diameter of the planet (4,880 km or 3,030 mi).
Mercury is the smallest planet in our solar system and the nearest to the Sun. Mercury is only slightly larger than Earth's Moon. Its surface is covered in tens of thousands of impact craters.
Mercury has a radius of about 2,440 km, and its surface area is 74,797,000 km 2. Its mass is 3.30 × 10 23 kg. Mercury is the smallest major planet in both size and mass.
Surface pressure: <~5 x 10-15 bar (0.005 picobar) Average temperature: 440 K (167 C) (590-725 K, sunward side) Total mass of atmosphere: <~10000 kg Atmospheric composition (Column abundances in 10 6 per cm 2): Sodium 12,000-200,000; Magnesium 100,000; Oxygen <40,000; Hydrogen 5000, Potassium 800-1300, Calcium 300-1000; Iron <300; Aluminum 15 ...
Named for the fleet-footed Roman messenger god, Mercury is the closest planet to the sun, zipping around our parent star at an average of 36 million miles away. However, Mercury’s orbit is not...
Because the planet is so close to the sun, Mercury's surface temperature can reach a scorching 840 degrees Fahrenheit (450 degrees Celsius).
The surface is rich in sulfur, about 20 times richer than the surfaces of Earth, the Moon, and Mars. Messenger also found low surface abundances of titanium and iron. Mercury seems to have formed in conditions much more reducing—i.e., those in which oxygen was scarce—than other terrestrial planets.
Along with Venus, Earth, and Mars, Mercury is one of the rocky planets. It has a solid surface that is covered with craters. Instead of an atmosphere, Mercury possesses a thin exosphere made up of atoms blasted off the surface by the solar wind and striking meteoroids.
The surface of Mercury which faces the Sun sees temperatures of up to 427°C, whilst on the alternate side this can be as low as -173°C. This is due to the planet having no atmosphere to help regulate the temperature.