Hands down, sardines are the safest fish on the planet. {\displaystyle a} The Babylonians called the planet Nabu after the messenger to the gods in their mythology. The second is the MESSENGER spacecraft, which after three Mercury flybys between 2008 and 2009, attained orbit around Mercury on March 17, 2011,[126] to study and map the rest of the planet. [155], In June 1962, Soviet scientists at the Institute of Radio-engineering and Electronics of the USSR Academy of Sciences, led by Vladimir Kotelnikov, became the first to bounce a radar signal off Mercury and receive it, starting radar observations of the planet. [14] This exosphere is not stable—atoms are continuously lost and replenished from a variety of sources. It has a large metallic core having a radius of about 2000km, that’s about 85% of planets diameter. In other words, the orbits of the two planets approach each other most closely. Scientists have found that Mercury's core, already suspected to occupy a greater fraction of the planet's interior than do the cores of Earth, Venus, or Mars, is even larger than anticipated. These twisted magnetic flux tubes, technically known as flux transfer events, form open windows in the planet's magnetic shield through which the solar wind may enter and directly impact Mercury's surface via magnetic reconnection[87] This also occurs in Earth's magnetic field. Although he observed phases when he looked at Venus, his telescope was not powerful enough to see the phases of Mercury. Scientists used the calculated density to determine that Mercury holds a large metallic core. [176][177], On March 24, 1975, just eight days after its final close approach, Mariner 10 ran out of fuel. Aside from being the first planet, Mercury is also the smallest of the planets with a mean diameter of about 4,880 km. Although Mercury is farthest from Earth when it is full, the greater illuminated area that is visible and the opposition brightness surge more than compensates for the distance. PhD Dissertation, University of California, Berkeley, Institute of Radio-engineering and Electronics, "The MeanPlane (Invariable plane) of the Solar System passing through the barycenter", "HORIZONS Web-Interface for Mercury Major Body", "The gravity field, orientation, and ephemeris of Mercury from MESSENGER observations after three years in orbit", "Near-Surface Temperatures on Mercury and the Moon and the Stability of Polar Ice Deposits", "Animated clip of orbit and rotation of Mercury", "NASA Completes MESSENGER Mission with Expected Impact on Mercury's Surface", "From Mercury orbit, MESSENGER watches a lunar eclipse", "Innovative use of pressurant extends MESSENGER's Mercury mission", "MESSENGER Provides New Look at Mercury's Surprising Core and Landscape Curiosities", "Scientists find evidence Mercury has a solid inner core", "Mercury has molten core, Cornell researcher shows", "Mercury's Core Molten, Radar Study Shows", "Thickness of the crust of Mercury from geoid-to-topography ratios", "Collisional stripping of Mercury's mantle", "Messenger's message from Mercury: Time to rewrite the textbooks", "Messenger sheds light on Mercury's formation", "Categories for Naming Features on Planets and Satellites", "Tectonic Evolution of the Terrestrial Planets", "Ballet isn't rocket science, but the two aren't mutually exclusive, either", "Bizarre spider scar found on Mercury's surface", "A Serenitatis origin for the Imbrian grooves and South Pole-Aitken thorium anomaly", "Mercuryquakes May Currently Shake Up the Tiny Planet", "Flood Volcanism in the Northern High Latitudes of Mercury Revealed by, "Long-lived explosive volcanism on Mercury", "Global inventory and characterization of pyroclastic deposits on Mercury: New insights into pyroclastic activity from MESSENGER orbital data", "Prolonged eruptive history of a compound volcano on Mercury: Volcanic and tectonic implications", "On Closest Planet to the Sun, NASA Finds Lots of Ice", "MESSENGER Scientists 'Astonished' to Find Water in Mercury's Thin Atmosphere", "Instrument Shows What Planet Mercury Is Made Of", "Magnetic Tornadoes Could Liberate Mercury's Tenuous Atmosphere", "Space Topics: Compare the Planets: Mercury, Venus, Earth, The Moon, and Mars", "Large Longitude Libration of Mercury Reveals a Molten Core", "BBC Radio 4 – More or Less, Sugar, Outdoors Play and Planets", "USGS Astrogeology: Rotation and pole position for the Sun and planets (IAU WGCCRE)", "Lettre de M. Le Verrier à M. Faye sur la théorie de Mercure et sur le mouvement du périhélie de cette planète", "Life on the Planet Mercury? Those with a Mercury: The closest planet to our sun, Mercury is a terrestrial planet like Earth or Venus. Although it's the smallest planet, Mercury is the second densest, topped only by Earth. [128], Because the shift of 0.15 revolutions in a year makes up a seven-year cycle (0.15 × 7 ≈ 1.0), in the seventh year Mercury follows almost exactly (earlier by 7 days) the sequence of phenomena it showed seven years before. {\displaystyle \epsilon =24\pi ^{3}{\frac {a^{2}}{T^{2}c^{2}(1-e^{2})}}} Four Earth days after perihelion, the Sun's normal apparent motion resumes. The spacecraft encountered magnetic "tornadoes" – twisted bundles of magnetic fields connecting the planetary magnetic field to interplanetary space – that were up to 800 km wide or a third of the radius of the planet. Because of the close distancebetween 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. [175] At the first close approach, instruments detected a magnetic field, to the great surprise of planetary geologists—Mercury's rotation was expected to be much too slow to generate a significant dynamo effect. [82][83] Like that of Earth, Mercury's magnetic field is dipolar. Such an impact could have stripped away much of its outer shell, leaving a core too big for remaining planet. Measurements of changes in the probe's orbital velocity were expected to be used to infer details of the planet's interior structure. Due to Mercury's 3:2 spin-orbit resonance, a solar day (the length between two meridian transits of the Sun) lasts about 176 Earth days. Since it the innermost planet in the solar system, it also means that it revolves around the sun in the shortest time (89.97 days) compared to the other planets. As the inner core grows, it provides the energy behind Earth's magnetic field. The planet mercury is barren, there are no living things on it and therefore no food. This occurs about every seven years on average. Thus, to a hypothetical observer on Mercury, the Sun appears to move in a retrograde direction. The hydrogen and helium captured from the solar wind help create part of Mercury's thin atmosphere. NASA approximates that the carbon material has been there since Mercury was formed or when it was in its infancy. Some medical applications, including vaccine production, involve mercury. There was a problem. [84] Measurements from both the Mariner 10 and MESSENGER space probes have indicated that the strength and shape of the magnetic field are stable. Mercury is technically brightest as seen from Earth when it is at a full phase. However, MESSENGER found that the floors of many craters have been tilted, and part of the floor of the Caloris basin has been raised above its rim. They provided the first views that resolved surface features on the parts of Mercury that were not imaged in the Mariner 10 mission. [121] The opposite is true for Venus, which appears brightest when it is a crescent, because it is much closer to Earth than when gibbous. Does Mercury have volcanoes? Mercury is the innermost and smallest planet in the solar system, orbiting the Sun once every 88 days. Filling in the values gives a result of 0.1035 arcseconds per revolution or 0.4297 arcseconds per Earth year, i.e., 42.97 arcseconds per century. The gravity pulled the dust particles and various gases in one place and formed this little planet called Mercury. [140][141][142] Hindu mythology used the name Budha for Mercury, and this god was thought to preside over Wednesday. Bursts of energetic particles in the planet's magnetotail indicate a dynamic quality to the planet's magnetosphere. For example, essentially because Mercury is closer to the Sun than Venus, Mercury spends more time in proximity to Earth; it could, therefore, be said that Mercury is the planet that is 'closest to Earth when averaged over time'. In modern times Mercury does not have a common nickname (not like Mars which is often called The Red Planet). The eccentricity of Mercury's orbit makes this resonance stable—at perihelion, when the solar tide is strongest, the Sun is nearly still in Mercury's sky. MESSENGER studied material kicked up and found traces of potassium and silicon, suggesting that the elements lie on the planet's surface. Mercury can come as near as 82.2 gigametres (0.549 astronomical units; 51.1 million miles) to Earth, and that is slowly declining: The next approach to within 82.1 Gm (51.0 million miles) is in 2679, and to within 82.0 Gm (51.0 million miles) in 4487, but it will not be closer to Earth than 80 Gm (50 million miles) until 28,622. Just like Venus, the planet is considered an inferior planet. [138], In ancient China, Mercury was known as "the Hour Star" (Chen-xing 辰星). From this distance, it takes sunlight 3.2 minutes to trave… In 1800, Johann Schröter made observations of surface features, claiming to have observed 20-kilometre-high (12 mi) mountains. Volcanic vents surrounding the basin's rim suggest that volcanism helped to shape the tiny world. Ground-based telescope observations of Mercury reveal only an illuminated partial disk with limited detail. Named after the Roman messenger of the gods, the planet … [84], It is likely that this magnetic field is generated by a dynamo effect, in a manner similar to the magnetic field of Earth. 1. A trip to Mercury requires more rocket fuel than that required to escape the Solar System completely. Care must be taken to ensure the instrument isn't pointed directly towards the Sun because of the risk for eye damage. [103], For many years it was thought that Mercury was synchronously tidally locked with the Sun, rotating once for each orbit and always keeping the same face directed towards the Sun, in the same way that the same side of the Moon always faces Earth. "For sure we have not observed an active eruption or extrusion.". Despite its small size, Mercury is very dense because it is composed mainly of heavy metals and rock – the main characteristic of terrestrial planets. While Mercury does have volcanoes, they are no longer active. A day on Mercury lasts 59 Earth days. is the orbital eccentricity, The first images of Mercury revealed a cratered, rocky planet that closely resembled Earth's moon. The troughs, up to 2 kilometers wide, crosscut the outer ridge ring. Mercury’s core is partly molten. Friedrich Bessel used Schröter's drawings to erroneously estimate the rotation period as 24 hours and an axial tilt of 70°. Reason 1 – It Has No Atmosphere. Mercury and Venus occult each other every few centuries, and the event of May 28, 1737 is the only one historically observed, having been seen by John Bevis at the Royal Greenwich Observatory. With a radius of 1,100 to 1,200 mile (1,800 to 1,900 km), the core makes up about 85 percent of the planet's radius. It is important to be clear about the meaning of 'closeness'. Mercury is a pretty small planet with a diameter of only 4880 km - about one third the size of the planet Earth. [67], Although the daylight temperature at the surface of Mercury is generally extremely high, observations strongly suggest that ice (frozen water) exists on Mercury. This varying distance to the Sun leads to Mercury's surface being flexed by tidal bulges raised by the Sun that are about 17 times stronger than the Moon's on Earth. [123], The earliest known recorded observations of Mercury are from the Mul.Apin tablets. The potential energy liberated by moving down the Sun's potential well becomes kinetic energy, requiring another large delta-v change to do anything other than rapidly pass by Mercury. [132][135] The astronomical symbol for Mercury is a stylized version of Hermes' caduceus. One of Mercury's youngest impact basin, Rachmaninoff, is only about a billion years old. The second close approach was primarily used for imaging, but at the third approach, extensive magnetic data were obtained. Mercury is a terrestrial planet, pretty much like Earth. [139] Modern Chinese, Korean, Japanese and Vietnamese cultures refer to the planet literally as the "water star" (水星), based on the Five elements. 2 Follow us at @Spacedotcom, Facebook or Google+. The resonance makes a single solar day on Mercury last exactly two Mercury years, or about 176 Earth days. Does Mercury have any rings? 2 The smallest planet in our solar system has a big presence in our collective imagination. Please deactivate your ad blocker in order to see our subscription offer. The "4" is a reference number in the Sumero–Akkadian transliteration system to designate which of several syllables a certain cuneiform sign is most likely designating. [24][106] Thank you for signing up to Space. Astronomers were reluctant to drop the synchronous rotation theory and proposed alternative mechanisms such as powerful heat-distributing winds to explain the observations. The floors of deep craters at the poles are never exposed to direct sunlight, and temperatures there remain below 102 K; far lower than the global average. The first and last quarter phases occur at greatest elongation east and west of the Sun, respectively. The solution needs to be aerated 24/7 to prevent any bacteria building up. It is the second densest planet of the Solar System, but also the smallest planet.The structure of Mercury makes it the most similar planet to Earth. Methylmercury is of particular concern because it can accumulate in th… [180] A first fly-by of Mercury occurred on January 14, 2008, a second on October 6, 2008,[181] and a third on September 29, 2009. [f][130] Babylonian records of Mercury date back to the 1st millennium BC. Like the other three terrestrial planet, Mercury contains a core surrounded by a mantle and a crust. Comment. 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