.
“the smallest planet”
“the planet closest to the sun”
“terrestrial planet”
“no moons”
.
*’mercury’ is the ‘smallest’ + ‘inner-most’ planet in the ‘solar system’*
.
(its ‘orbital period’ (about ’88 earth days’) is less than any other planet in the ‘solar system’)
(seen from ‘earth’, it appears to move around its orbit in about ‘116 days’)
(it has no known ‘natural satellites’)
(it is named after the roman deity ‘mercury’, the ‘messenger to the gods’)
(partly because it has almost no ‘atmosphere’ to retain ‘heat’, mercury’s ‘surface temperature’ varies diurnally more than any other planet in the ‘solar system’, ranging from 100 K (−173 °C; −280 °F) at night to 700 K (427 °C; 800 °F) during the day in some ‘equatorial regions’)
(the poles are constantly below 180 K (−93 °C; −136 °F))
(mercury’s axis has the smallest ’tilt’ of any of the solar system’s planets (about 1⁄30 degree), and its ‘orbital eccentricity’ is the largest of all known planets in the ‘solar system’)
(at ‘aphelion’, ‘mercury’ is about ‘1.5 times’ as far from the ‘sun’ as it is at ‘perihelion’)
(mercury’s surface is heavily ‘cratered’ and similar in appearance to the ‘moon’, indicating that it has been ‘geologically inactive’ for billions of years)
(‘mercury’ is ‘tidally’ or ‘gravitationally’ locked with the ‘sun’ in a ‘3:2 resonance’, and rotates in a way that is unique in the ‘solar system’)
(as seen relative to the ‘fixed stars’, it rotates on its ‘axis’ exactly 3 times for every 2 revolutions it makes around the ‘sun’)
(as seen from the ‘sun’, in a ‘frame of reference’ that rotates with the ‘orbital motion’, it appears to rotate only once every 2 ‘mercurian years’)
(an observer on ‘mercury’ would therefore see only 1 day every 2 years)
(because ‘mercury’ orbits the ‘sun’ within earth’s orbit (as does ‘venus’), it can appear in earth’s sky in the ‘morning’ or the ‘evening’, but not in the middle of the night)
(also, like ‘venus’ + the ‘moon’, it displays a complete range of phases as it moves around its orbit relative to ‘earth’)
(although ‘mercury’ can appear as a ‘bright object’ when viewed from ‘earth’, its proximity to the ‘sun’ makes it more difficult to see than ‘venus’)
.
(2 spacecraft have visited ‘mercury’…)
(mariner 10 flew by in ‘1974’ + ‘1975’)
.
(and MESSENGER – launched in ‘2004’ – orbited ‘mercury’ over 4,000 times in 4 years, before exhausting its fuel + crashing into the planet’s surface on ’30 april 2015′)
.
.
.
.
.
.
👈👈👈☜*“THE SOLAR SYSTEM”* ☞ 👉👉👉
.
.
💕💝💖💓🖤💙🖤💙🖤💙🖤❤️💚💛🧡❣️💞💔💘❣️🧡💛💚❤️🖤💜🖤💙🖤💙🖤💗💖💝💘
.
.
*🌈✨ *TABLE OF CONTENTS* ✨🌷*
.
.
🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥*we won the war* 🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥