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Our subscribers' grade-level estimate for this page: 3rd - 5th |
Table of Contents | Enchanted Learning All About Astronomy |
Site Index |
Our Solar System | Stars | Glossary | Printables, Worksheets, and Activities | ||||||
The Sun | The Planets | The Moon | Asteroids | Kuiper Belt | Comets | Meteors | Astronomers |
Your weight on the Planets | The Planets | Your age on the Planets |
Mercury |
Introduction | Map of Mercury | Inside Mercury | Length of a Day and Year | Activities, Web Links |
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Craters on the surface of Mercury. |
Mercury is just over a third as far from the sun as the Earth is; it is 0.387 A.U. from the sun (on average). Mercury's orbit is very eccentric; at aphelion (the point in the orbit farthest from the sun) Mercury is 70 million km from the sun, at perihelion Mercury is 46 million km from the sun.
There are no seasons on Mercury. Seasons are caused by the tilt of the axis relative to the planet's orbit. Since Mercury's axis is directly perpendicular to its motion (not tilted), it has no seasons.
If you were on the surface of Mercury, the Sun would look almost three times as big as it does from Earth!
TEMPERATURE RANGE
Mercury has a huge range in temperatures. Its surface ranges in temperature from -270°F to 800°F (-168°C to 427°C). During the very long daytime (88 Earth-days long), the temperatures are very high (the second-highest in the Solar System - only Venus is hotter); during the long night, the thin atmosphere lets the heat dissipate, and the temperature drops quickly.
MOONS
Mercury has no moons.
MERCURY-EARTH COMPARISONS
This is the symbol of the planet Mercury. |
Find It!, a quiz on Mercury.
An interactive puzzle about Mercury.
Mercury Cloze Printout: A fill-in-the-blanks activity on the planet Mercury. Answers
How to write a report on a planet - plus a rubric.
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