Mercury's surface temperatures are both extremely hot and cold. Despite its proximity to the Sun, Mercury is not the hottest planet in our solar system — that title belongs to nearby Venus, thanks to its dense atmosphere. But Mercury is the fastest planet, zipping around the Sun every 88 Earth days. Mercury's environment is not conducive to life as we know it.
The temperatures and solar radiation that characterize this planet are most likely too extreme for organisms to adapt to. If Earth were the size of a nickel, Mercury would be about as big as a blueberry. From an average distance of 36 million miles 58 million kilometers , Mercury is 0. One astronomical unit abbreviated as AU , is the distance from the Sun to Earth. From this distance, it takes sunlight 3. Mercury's highly eccentric, egg-shaped orbit takes the planet as close as 29 million miles 47 million kilometers and as far as 43 million miles 70 million kilometers from the Sun.
It speeds around the Sun every 88 days, traveling through space at nearly 29 miles 47 kilometers per second, faster than any other planet. Mercury spins slowly on its axis and completes one rotation every 59 Earth days. But when Mercury is moving fastest in its elliptical orbit around the Sun and it is closest to the Sun , each rotation is not accompanied by sunrise and sunset like it is on most other planets.
The morning Sun appears to rise briefly, set, and rise again from some parts of the planet's surface. The same thing happens in reverse at sunset for other parts of the surface. One Mercury solar day one full day-night cycle equals Earth days — just over two years on Mercury. Mercury's axis of rotation is tilted just 2 degrees with respect to the plane of its orbit around the Sun. That means it spins nearly perfectly upright and so does not experience seasons as many other planets do.
Online he has written extensively on science-related topics in math, physics, chemistry and biology and has been published on sites such as Digital Landing and Reference. TL;DR Too Long; Didn't Read Mercury's core is thought to be made of molten nickel-iron with a mantle of solid rock and a surface of loose rocks and dust.
Terrains of the Planets. Which Planet Apparently Shrank in Diameter? Facts About the Planet Neptune. Amazing Facts on Saturn. A Description of Saturn. What Is in the Middle of Saturn? What Is Saturn's Core Made of? What Is the Average Temperature of Jupiter? The Characteristics of the Eight Planets. Which Planet Has the Strongest Pull? Most of the plains are covered with craters, suggesting that volcanism took place long ago.
The discovery suggests that Mercury remained active well after its birth. One of Mercury's youngest impact basin, Rachmaninoff, is only about a billion years old.
The km diameter peak-ring impact basin has smooth plains on its floor suggestive of lava flows. The lowest point on the planet lies within the basin. Although temperatures on the planet can reach as high as degrees Fahrenheit degrees Celsius , MESSENGER detected water-ice on its surface in the shaded portions of some of the polar craters, where the sun doesn't reach.
According to NASA , a mysterious dark organic matter covers some of the ice, leaving scientists puzzled. In addition to testifying as to the planet's early volcanism, the smooth plains also show evidence of wrinkle ridges, created as the planet squeezed together. This coming together most likely happened as the interior cooled. Although some compression is common among bodies in the solar system, the compression of Mercury as it pulled more tightly in on itself is the most significant yet seen.
Scientists estimate that the radius of the planet shrank by 0. A small body like Mercury would have a difficult time holding on to an atmosphere in the best of circumstances. Because of the close distance between Mercury and the sun, Mercury also feels the brunt of the solar wind, which constantly sweeps away the thin atmosphere the planet does manage to gather. Among other things, the species influence:. Speciation also influences the transport of mercury within and between environmental compartments including the atmosphere and oceans, among others.
For example, the speciation is a determining factor for how far from the source mercury emitted to air is transported. Mercury adsorbed on particles and ionic e. Another example is the so-called "polar sunrise mercury depletion incidence ", where the transformation of elemental mercury to divalent mercury is influenced by increased solar activity and the presence of ice crystals, resulting in a substantial increase in mercury deposition during a three month period approximately March to June.
Moreover, speciation is very important for the controllability of mercury emissions to air. For example, emissions of inorganic mercuric compounds such as mercuric chloride are captured reasonably well by some control devices such as wet-scrubbers , while capture of elemental mercury tends to be low for most emission control devices. This summary is free and ad-free, as is all of our content.
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What is mercury? The source document for this Digest states: Mercury occurs naturally in the environment and exists in a large number of forms. The source document for this Digest states: Several forms of mercury occur naturally in the environment.
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