The planet Mercury was named after the roman god of commerce, travel and thievery. If you didn’t know, Mercury has been known to humans since the 3rd century but at the time was known as Apollo in the morning and Hermes in the evening. It is the closest planet to the sun in our solar system but surprisingly not the hottest. I will tell you why in just a moment. The planet is the second smallest planet after Pluto which is the most distant planet in our solar system. Please enjoy the article that I have written down for you.

1. Mercury is the closet planet to the sun. Like  I have mentioned above, Mercury is the closet planet to the sun. If we were on Mercury at this moment in time, the sun would look 3-4 times larger than what it looks like on Earth. It races around space at 30 miles a second! This is by far the fastest planet in our solar system. It travels once around the sun every 88 earth days. Due to the fact that the planet is really close to the sun, it is quite hard to see the planet from Earth without a telescope. But the planet is visible throughout the year in the western sky at sunset and just before sunrise in the eastern sky.
2. Mercury’s surface is similar to our moon. Our moon has been attacked by thousands of asteroids and meteors, leaving the craters behind. The largest crater on the planet is known as the Caloris Basin which is 800 miles across. Similarly, Mercury has also faced the same and the surface is near enough like that of Earth’s moon. However, even though Mercury is very similar to our moon, it does contain any of its own moons.
3. Mercury has a large molten iron core. The planet Mercury has a large iron core which is nearly the size of the Earth’s moon! The radius of the iron core is around 1,900km wide. The planets shell is only around 500km compared to the Earth’s outer shell known as the mantle which is around 2900km. To reach the mantle, you only have to travel 100km down below the crust.
4. Mercury has a very thin atmosphere. The atmosphere of Mercury is always made up from the surface due to the atoms that are blasted off. However, these atoms escape into space and leave the planet. This means that the atmosphere is always being renewed.
5.  Mercury has very long days. During the 1960’s, astronomers had discovered that Mercury has very long days. Even though it is the fastest planet in our solar system, it rotates so slow that it only rotates 3 times after completing 2 orbits around the sun. This means that 1 day on Mercury is equivalent to 176 Earth days. We cannot survive for so many days without getting some sleep even though if it were daylight or not!

Conclusion

I hope you have enjoyed this article. Mercury does have some interesting facts but there are more planets out there which are far greater and deadlier. Please take a look at some other planetary articles of mine:

• Facts about Mars