Overview

Namesake: The Roman god Mercury is the patron god of financial gain, commerce, eloquence, messages, travelers, boundaries, luck, trickery, & thieves.

Type: Terrestrial planet

Distance from the sun: Closest planet to the sun at a distance of 26 million miles (0.39 AU)

Year: 1 year on Mercury equals 88 Earth days

Day: 1 day-night cycle on Mercury equals 175.97 Earth days

Temperature: -279° F (night side) - 801° F (day side)

Diameter: 3,032 mi.

Size: 1/3 the size of Earth (If Earth was a baseball, Mercury would be a golf ball.)

Atmosphere: has a thin atmosphere called an exosphere made up of oxygen (O2), sodium (Na), hydrogen (H2), helium (He), and potassium (K).

Rings: 0

Moons: 0

Other Information:

- It looks a lot like our moon, scarred from collisions with meteors.

- Has an eccentric (oval shaped) orbit. This means that at its closest the planet is only 29 million miles away from the sun. During which time, if you could survive there, the sun would look 3 times bigger than it does on Earth. At its farthest the planet is 43 million miles away from the sun.

- It is a mostly metal planet with its molten (liquid) core taking up 80% of its radius and the mantle and crust being only 250 miles thick.

Find out how much you would weigh if you moved here:

Try this formula to see how much you would weigh:

(Your weight x 0.38)