Mercury
By: Matthew Ashley
Rotation of Mercury
Mercury's orbit is really odd; at the shortest distance it is only 46 million km from the Sun but at the farthest it is 70 million. The position of the largest distance is the slowest rate at which it travels around the sun. The slow rotation helps a keep the weather under control but don’t worry, even if it does get strange we have invented special suits for you to wear.
Revolution of Mercury
It is now known that Mercury rotates three times in two of its years. Mercury is the only body in the solar system known to have an orbital/rotational resonance with a ratio other than 1:1 (though many have no resonances at all). If you like hot weather all year long come join us over at Mercury.
Size and Location
Mercury, having very little mass and size has less gravitational pull than other planets, so it can’t sustain the gravity to make a moon orbit it.
Mercury is the first planet to the sun; it is about 36,000,000 miles away (36 million) but has a slightly elliptical orbit. It takes 88 days to orbit the sun. It takes about 58/59 Earth days for mercury to rotate ounce on its axis.Tempature
Temperature variations on Mercury are the most extreme in the solar system ranging from -297 degrees F to 800 degrees F. Come visit our “beaches” in the summer and don’t forget your heated blankets, you never know when one might fly off into space.
Density
Mercury is the smallest planet in the solar system, 4,878 km (3,032 miles) at its equator, which is about two-fifths of Earth's diameter. Mercury is thought to be about 70% metal and about 30% silicate materials. The weight of a 100 pound human on Earth would only way 38 pounds because of the decreased size and gravitational pull.
When and How it was Discovered
Mercury is one of the 5 planets visible without a telescope. The 5 planets visible without the telescope are Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn. It’s impossible to say “when was Mercury discovered”, since that would have been before recorded history. The most detailed observations of Mercury have come from the exploration from spacecraft sent from Earth. NASA’s Mariner 10 spacecraft flew past Mercury in 1974, capturing images from an altitude of just 327 km. It eventually mapped about half of the planet in good detail, revealing that the planet looked very similar to the Earth’s moon, with many craters and lava pits.