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| The Mercury: Inner most planet from the sun. |
The Mercury planet is smallest planet and innermost planet of our
solar system. The name Mercury is after the Greek god Hermes, translated into
Latin Mercurius Mercury, He is the god of commerce, the messenger of the gods
and mediator between gods and mortals. As the Mercury is the closest planet from
the sun, it has the fastest speed of revolution around the sun. Because of the
sun’s very strong gravitational force, this gives Mercury speed. The Mercury is
speeding along at about 29 miles per
second around the sun and completing each orbit in just 88 Earth’s days.
The Mercury planet rotates about its axis very slowly, taking nearly 59 Earth days to complete one rotation.
As a result, a day on Mercury is about 176
Earth day. The speed of planet gives it the nickname as Swift Planet.
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| The Mercury: Smallest Planet in solar system. |
The Mercury is not the brightest planet to see in the sky with naked eyes. The Mercury distance from sun is 68.902 million km. Mercury is 0.4 astronomical unit away from the sun. The diameter of planet is about 4,879 km (3,032 miles). The planet requires 58.6 Earth days for one spin about its axis. The planet requires 88 Earth days to complete one orbit of sun.
Does Mercury have atmosphere?
The planet has almost no atmosphere, the thin atmosphere is constantly being blown away into the space because of solar wind. The Atmosphere made up of atoms blasted off the surface by the solar wind. Atmosphere is Mostly composed of oxygen, sodium, hydrogen, helium and potassium. The planet is small; it cannot hold the atmosphere due to the very low gravity. The Mercury is slightly bigger than our moon. The temperature on the surface which faces to sun reaches up to 430 degrees Celsius and on the other hand at the shadow region the temperature can drop to minus 180 degrees Celsius. The polar region of planet is covered by water ice. The average surface temperature is 167 degrees Celsius (333 F).
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| Detailed view of the Layer of Mercury |
Mercury is made of
The inner core
of planet is solid metallic core. The outer core is made of iron sulphide,
crust is of solid silicate and very thin mantle overlying a solid. Mercury is
the second densest planet after Earth. The Mercury is dead planet and most
heavily cratered object in our solar system.
The Mercury is made of approximately
70% metals and 30% of silicate material. The planet is slightly dense than
Earth. Thanks to new data provided by the Messenger
mission, it gives information that the inner
core of Mercury is solid iron. The inner core of Mercury is made of solid
metallic with radius of about 1,289 miles (2,074 km). The inner core of the
planet is nearly about 85% of the volume. The Mercury has a solid inner core
and it is same as earth’s core. The core has a higher iron content than that of
any other planet in the solar system.
The Outer Core of Mercury
The outer core of the planet is molten iron
sulphide. Due to this molten outer core that gives power to planet’s weak
magnetic field. This molten iron is cooling very rapidly, as result planet
losing its magnetic field. The magnetic field is strong enough to trap solar
wind plasma, this results to low energy plasma in magnetosphere.
The Mantle of Mercury
The Mantle of planet is after outer core.
The Mantle is about 500 km to 700 km thick. In the History of Mercury planet, the
mantle might have lost some of part due to the impacts with other bodies. The
Mantle is made with almost solid silicate rock.
The Crust of Mercury
The Crust is made up of solid silicate very
thinner than Earth’s. The crust is only about 300 miles to 400 miles (500 km to
600 km) thick. The planet has no tectonic plates, which preserves the cratered
surface for billion years. The surface of the planet is appearing heavily cratered
as like our surface of Moon. The
Surface of Mercury looks like a damaged world covered in overlapping basins,
soaring cliffs and occasional smooth plains.
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| The Orbit Of the mercury Planet. |
The Orbit of the Mercury
The Orbit of the Mercury is slightly oval shaped. In this shape sun located towards one end of oval. The planet comes closest to the sun is the Perihelion (29 million miles, 47 million km), and point at which the planet is farthest from sun is the Aphelion (43 million miles, 70 million km). At Perihelion the speed of Mercury is fastest of it and during mercury at Aphelion is lowest of it. When Mercury comes closer to the sun, the gravity pulls the planet which gives the maximum speed. The Mercury rotates around its axis very slowly, so it takes 59 Earth days to complete one rotation. The axis of rotation around is tilted only 2 degrees. But a year on the Mercury goes faster.
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| Details of Mercury's Magnetic Field. |
The Magnetic field of Mercury
The Magnetic field is very weak as compared
with Earth magnetic field. The Magnetic field is just one percent of Earth’s
Magnetic field. The Magnetic field is distorted by solar wind. The solar wind
from the sun compresses the planet’s magnetic field on day side of planet and
it stretches it out to create long tail on far side of planet. The solar wind
and magnetic field of planet overlaps to create the bow shock wave and
magnetopause boundaries, which defects the solar wind from planet. As Mercury
is closest planet from the sun, it strongly exposes to solar wind. This
exposure drives strong electric current in magnetosphere of the planet, whose
magnetic field counteract the internal dynamo effect. Because of dynamo effect,
the planet produces weaker magnetic field.
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| The Mercury Transit across the Sun and viewed from Earth. |
A Transit of Mercury across the sun, when
Mercury passes between the sun and the Earth, appears as a tiny black dot
moving across the sun. The transit of Mercury across the sun is frequent
because Mercury is closest planet from sun and the fastest planet in the solar
system. The Mercury Transit across the sun occurs in May or November. The last
four transits occurred on May 7,2003; November 8,2006; May 9,2016; November
11,2019. The next transit occurs on November 13, 2032. The transit is typically
lasts several hours.
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