LIFE ON MERCURY
More About The First Planet
From The Sun
Mercury is named after the God Hermes, who's Roman name was Mercury. Hermes was the speedy messenger God, and Mercury was named after him because of the planets swiftness. The length of Mercury's year is 88 Earth days, and its day is 59 Earth days. The size of Mercury's diameter is 0.38 of Earth's diameter. Also, another cool thing about Mercury is... If you weigh 80 pounds on Earth, you weigh 30 on Mercury!
A Little More About Mercury
Mercury completes three full turns on its axis as it orbits every two times around the Sun. Also, Mercury is available for the naked eye to see without any sort of telescope! It is always very close to the Sun, and it appears as a star shortly before sunrise or after sunset. You can tell it isn't a star, though. It's motion against the background of stars give that away. Mercury's mass is 0.06 of Earth's mass. It's surface temperature is also something cool! Literally, it reaches -360 degrees at night, and can reach 870 degrees in the day.
A Couple More Things To Know..
Here are some more small facts to know about Mercury! The tilt of Mercury's axis is 0.01. It has 0.38 of Earth's gravity, so you will weigh a lot less. It's atmosphere is extremely thin. It is made up mostly of Oxygen, Sodium, and Helium. It's surface is heavily cratered. All of Mercury's craters are named after famous deceased artists, musicians, and painters. Mercury has no moons. Some of Mercury's past, current, and future missions are: Messenger, Mariner 10, and Bepi Columbo.