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15 Interesting Facts About Mercury
Since Mercury has never been fully mapped and hard to observe with a telescope, what facts do we know about this planet?
If you looked up at the sky above Mercury, the Sun would be twice the size of here on Earth.
A year on Mercury is only 88 days long.
The rays from the sun on Mercury are about seven times stronger than those on Earth.
Mercury is 4,878 kilometers wide, making it just a little bit larger than our moon.
Although Mercury is the closest planet to the Sun, Venus is the warmest.
In the time Pluto orbited the Sun once, 1028 years have passed on Mercury!
Mercury took its name from the Roman god of commerce, tourism and industry.
If you weigh 100 kg on Earth, you would only weigh 38 kg on Mercury.
Mercury is one of only two planets without an orbiting moon.
Despite being very close to the Sun, radar observations have shown that planets in the North Pole show evidence of water ice in the shadows of some craters!
Mercury has a very weak magnetic field, about 1% of the Earth's magnetic field.
Only half of Mercury has ever been seen!
The Hubble Telescope has never been able to observe Mercury, and never will.
As of 2012, Mariner 10 and MESSENGER are the only two spacecraft ever to visit the planet Mercury.
Mercury is the smallest planet in our Solar System.
