Mercury

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Mercury Gallery

View a selection of Mercury pictures in the gallery

Observing Mercury

Mercury Data

Mercury - The Winged Messenger from the Planet Suite - Holst

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The first planet from the sun is Mercury. It is a small heavily cratered world which orbits the sun every 88 Earth days. Mariner 10 is the only spaceprobe to have visited Mercury. The pictures sent back to Earth showed that Mercury looks very much like our own moon - althought it has no "Maria" (seas). Mariner 10 imaged about half of Mercury's surface. Mercury it not large enough to hold an atmosphere, but it does have a magnetic field. Along with Venus Mercury has no moons.



Mercury - Planetary Data

Distance from Sun (millions of km):
Orbital Period (days):
Synodic period (days):
Rotational Period (equator):
Diameter (km):
Orbital eccentricity:
Orbital inclination (degrees):
Axial inclination (degrees):
Escape velocity (km/s):
Mass (Earth=1):
Volume (Earth=1):
Density (g/cm^3):
Surface gravity (Earth=1):
Surface Temp. (degrees centigrade):
Albedo:
Maximum magnitude:


57.9
87.97
115.9
58.646 d
4878
0.206
7.0
2
4.25
0.055
0.056
5.44
0.38

+427
0.06
-1.9
© 2003 Alexander Henderson