The planet nearest the Sun got its name.back in the antique period. Mercury was a Roman god, patron of travelers and commerce. As well as the swift messenger of the gods. It is for the quick movement through the celestial arch of the planet closest to the Sun - and it is the fastest body in our sky - got its name.
Main statements
This planet is closer to the Sun than the Earth is almost threetimes. The proximity of Mercury to its star causes its highly elongated orbit and rapid rotation around it in just 88 days. And it is faster than the rotation of the Earth in half. Interestingly, the planet makes a revolution around its own axis in approximately 59 Earth days. It is too
due to the approach to the star and its strengthgravity, because the diameter of the planet is more than three times smaller than that of the earth, not to mention the mass. It turns out that a mercury day lasts two thirds of the year here. For a long time, Mercury was the smallest planet of the Earth group, and after Pluto was deprived of the status of the planet - which happened several years ago as a result of a revision of this concept by scientists - it became the smallest planet of the Solar System. Interestingly, it is even smaller than the moons of Jupiter and Saturn - respectively, Titan and Ganymede. Although the latter can not be called planets. For a long time almost nothing was known about Mercury. His full study was started only during the Cold War space race. In 1973, in the direction of this body, the device Mariner-10 was launched, which received the first good pictures of the planet (“looking” closer at Venus).
Weather on the planet
Mercury actually has no atmospherehowever, there is a small amount of gases familiar to us: hydrogen, sodium, oxygen, argon, potassium, and some others. Despite the fact that on most of its surface the planet closest to the Sun is a real heat (the temperature often reaches 400 degrees Celsius), there are also areas where the sun's rays never reach. Not so long ago, in some deep craters of the Moon, real water ice was discovered. Astrophysicists suggest that the Mercury, most likely, also contains ice in the craters located at its poles. The images that were obtained due to Mariner 10 showed that the planet closest to the Sun is very similar in structure to the Moon: it is even more craterized. The entire surface is covered with a long fragmented dark substance like basalt. In the composition of the body itself is most present iron - about 70%. Most likely, its core consists of it. However, it seems that the planet closest to the Sun has already cooled down inside and has no geological activity.
Further research
Today, the joint forces of European and Japanesespecialists are developing a program in which over the next few years two spacecraft will be sent to Mercury, one of which will descend to the planet and explore its surface and depths, while the other will study its magnetic field.
