Space - The Planet Mercury

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The planet Mercury is the first planet in Space. It is the second smallest and also the fastest in its orbit. Mercury orbits very close to the Sun at a distance of only about 36 million miles. Mercury appears from a distance in manyways, similar to the Moon.

Mercury was the god of commerce, travel and thievery in Roman mythology. The planet was named Mercury by the Greek because it seemed to move quickly across the sky.

Mercury has 176 days of light and 176 days of darkness. There are no natural satellites. By radar observation from Earth evidence of water ice is present in the planet Mercury.

Mercury has a small magnetic field whose strength is about one percent of Earth's magnetic field. Mercury often is visible from earth with binoculars and sometimes even the naked eye. However, the planet is always very near the Sun and difficult to see in the twilight sky. Mercury 's orbit is tilted by seven degrees compared to that of earth.At its coldest the surface of mercury is seven times colder than a deep freeze.

When a meteorite strikes mercury 's surface, the impact punches a saucer- shaped crater in the ground. A wall of rock is thrown up all around it.Debris is blasted out in all directions ,creating smaller craters and long streakes in the ground. Because mercury has no weather,the features remain undistrubed.

Mercury, the densest of all the planets apart from Earth, has a huge metal core made of iron and nickel, surrounded by a relatively thin rocky shell.