the planet Mercury is named after the
messenger of the Roman gods because even
the ancients could see how Swift and
fleeting it is in the sky but it wasn’t
until recently that scientists began
unraveling Mercury’s many mysteries
mercury is the smallest planet in our
solar system its diameter currently
measures just over three thousand miles
about the size of the continental United
States like Earth mercury is a
terrestrial planet with three main
layers a core a mantle and a crust only
Mercury’s crust has no tectonic plates
also its iron core is enormous by
comparison making up 85% of its radius
while Earth’s inner and outer core
account for just 55% because of the core
is exceptional size it’s had a
surprising influence on Mercury’s
overall size by causing it to shrink the
hot iron core has slowly cooled and
contracted over the planets 4.5 billion
years in doing so it pulled Mercury’s
surface inward and has caused the planet
to shrink radially by more than four
this shrinking planet is also the planet
closest to the Sun orbiting our solar
system star at an average distance of
roughly 36 million miles such proximity
affects Mercury’s atmosphere or rather
the lack of one
it only has a very thin EXO sphere which
is traditionally the outermost layer of
a planet’s atmosphere this exosphere is
made of oxygen sodium hydrogen helium
and potassium all whipped up from the
planet’s surface by solar winds the lack
of atmosphere and close proximity to the
Sun also makes mercury a planet of
extremes the surface temperature can
climb to 800 degrees Fahrenheit during
the daytime and fall to 290 degrees
below zero at night
Mercury’s proximity to the Sun is also
the reason behind its age-old reputation
of being Swift and fleeting the Sun’s
gravity pulls harder on mercury than any
other planet and like all planets
mercury travels in an elliptical orbit
slowing down when it’s farther away from
the Sun and accelerating as it draws
closer clocking in at an average speed
of over 100,000 miles per hour
mercury slings around the Sun in just 88
days from Earth mercury is difficult to
observe because it’s fleeting and so
close to the Sun and so far it’s only
been visited by two spacecraft NASA’s
Mariner 10 and messenger those missions
gave us much of what we know today but
future ventures are in the works with
high hopes of revealing
[Music] you
messenger of the Roman gods because even
the ancients could see how Swift and
fleeting it is in the sky but it wasn’t
until recently that scientists began
unraveling Mercury’s many mysteries
mercury is the smallest planet in our
solar system its diameter currently
measures just over three thousand miles
about the size of the continental United
States like Earth mercury is a
terrestrial planet with three main
layers a core a mantle and a crust only
Mercury’s crust has no tectonic plates
also its iron core is enormous by
comparison making up 85% of its radius
while Earth’s inner and outer core
account for just 55% because of the core
is exceptional size it’s had a
surprising influence on Mercury’s
overall size by causing it to shrink the
hot iron core has slowly cooled and
contracted over the planets 4.5 billion
years in doing so it pulled Mercury’s
surface inward and has caused the planet
to shrink radially by more than four
this shrinking planet is also the planet
closest to the Sun orbiting our solar
system star at an average distance of
roughly 36 million miles such proximity
affects Mercury’s atmosphere or rather
the lack of one
it only has a very thin EXO sphere which
is traditionally the outermost layer of
a planet’s atmosphere this exosphere is
made of oxygen sodium hydrogen helium
and potassium all whipped up from the
planet’s surface by solar winds the lack
of atmosphere and close proximity to the
Sun also makes mercury a planet of
extremes the surface temperature can
climb to 800 degrees Fahrenheit during
the daytime and fall to 290 degrees
below zero at night
Mercury’s proximity to the Sun is also
the reason behind its age-old reputation
of being Swift and fleeting the Sun’s
gravity pulls harder on mercury than any
other planet and like all planets
mercury travels in an elliptical orbit
slowing down when it’s farther away from
the Sun and accelerating as it draws
closer clocking in at an average speed
of over 100,000 miles per hour
mercury slings around the Sun in just 88
days from Earth mercury is difficult to
observe because it’s fleeting and so
close to the Sun and so far it’s only
been visited by two spacecraft NASA’s
Mariner 10 and messenger those missions
gave us much of what we know today but
future ventures are in the works with
high hopes of revealing
[Music] you
Please follow and like us: