Mercury
Mercury is the innermost and smallest planet in the Solar System, orbiting the Sun once every 88 days , and orbiting around himself in 176 days , The orbit of Mercury has the highest eccentricity of all the Solar System planets, and it has the smallest axial tilt. It completes three rotations about the axis for every two orbits . Mercury planet is 58 million KM Away from the sun. His high temperature is (465) degrees C) and the micro is (-184). His mean radius is about 2439 KM , and his Gravity is about 3.7 , they discovered mercury in 1974.
Comparatively little is known about Mercury; ground-based telescopes reveal only an illuminated crescent with limited detail. The first of two spacecraft to visit the planet was Mariner 10, which mapped only about 45% of the planet’s surface from 1974 to 1975. The second is the MESSENGER spacecraft, which mapped another 30% during its flyby of January 14, 2008. A final flyby took place in September 2009. MESSENGER is scheduled to attain orbital insertion around Mercury in 2011, and will then survey and map the entire planet.
Greek astronomers believed the planet to be two separate objects: one visible only at sunrise, which they called Apollo; the other visible only at sunset, which they called Hermes. The English name for the planet comes from the Romans, who named it after the Roman god Mercury, which they equated with the Greek Hermes(Ἑρμῆς). The astronomical symbol for Mercury is a stylized version of Hermes' caduceus.
Mercury’s apparent magnitude varies between about −2.3—brighter than Sirius—and 5.7, with the extremes being when Mercury is very close to the Sun in the sky.[8] Observation of Mercury is complicated by its proximity to the Sun, as it is lost in the Sun’s glare for much of the time. Mercury can be observed for only a brief period during either morning or evening twilight. The Hubble Space Telescope cannot observe Mercury at all, due to safety procedures which prevent its pointing too close to the Sun.
Mercury is the innermost and smallest planet in the Solar System, orbiting the Sun once every 88 days , and orbiting around himself in 176 days , The orbit of Mercury has the highest eccentricity of all the Solar System planets, and it has the smallest axial tilt. It completes three rotations about the axis for every two orbits . Mercury planet is 58 million KM Away from the sun. His high temperature is (465) degrees C) and the micro is (-184). His mean radius is about 2439 KM , and his Gravity is about 3.7 , they discovered mercury in 1974.
Comparatively little is known about Mercury; ground-based telescopes reveal only an illuminated crescent with limited detail. The first of two spacecraft to visit the planet was Mariner 10, which mapped only about 45% of the planet’s surface from 1974 to 1975. The second is the MESSENGER spacecraft, which mapped another 30% during its flyby of January 14, 2008. A final flyby took place in September 2009. MESSENGER is scheduled to attain orbital insertion around Mercury in 2011, and will then survey and map the entire planet.
Greek astronomers believed the planet to be two separate objects: one visible only at sunrise, which they called Apollo; the other visible only at sunset, which they called Hermes. The English name for the planet comes from the Romans, who named it after the Roman god Mercury, which they equated with the Greek Hermes(Ἑρμῆς). The astronomical symbol for Mercury is a stylized version of Hermes' caduceus.
Mercury’s apparent magnitude varies between about −2.3—brighter than Sirius—and 5.7, with the extremes being when Mercury is very close to the Sun in the sky.[8] Observation of Mercury is complicated by its proximity to the Sun, as it is lost in the Sun’s glare for much of the time. Mercury can be observed for only a brief period during either morning or evening twilight. The Hubble Space Telescope cannot observe Mercury at all, due to safety procedures which prevent its pointing too close to the Sun.
