Author : Al Beckett
Mercury is the planet closest to the Sun. It is a dry, rocky world with an extremely thin atmosphere due to the radiation emitted from the Sun, which has burned away a large amount of it away. Mercury, being closest to the Sun, completes one orbit in 88 days; however, it takes 59 days for the planet to rotate as it spins very slowly on its axis. The planet has a diameter of 4880km and lies around 57.9 million kilometres away from the Sun.There is great variation in temperature between the Mercurian day and night. The average surface temperature is 167°C, but when the planet is closer to the Sun, the temperature climbs to around 450°C. At night however, the temperature falls very quickly as the atmosphere is too thin to contain the heat, in this case, the temperature falls to as low as -180°C.During the early history of the solar system, Mercury's surface was struck with many meteorite impacts, at this time, lava flowed out from the interior to form extensive plains, giving the planet an appearance which resembles that of our moon. Since then, Mercury has remained very much unchanged due to the fact there is no wind or water around the shape its landscape.Mercury has its own magnetic field, like the Earth, but it is weak, only around 1% as strong as the Earth's. Mercury's magnetism is produced by it huge iron core, which extends three quarters of the way up to the surface of the planet. Astronomers believe the core is solid iron and it surrounded by a much thinner layer of liquid iron and sulphur.Mercury's atmosphere is composed of the following elements:Oxygen – 42%
Sodium – 29%
Hydrogen – 22%
Helium – 6%
Potassium and other gases – 1%For more information about the Solar System visit: http://aboutthenineplanets.blogspot.com/
Keyword : mercury, the planets, the solar system, planets
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