Mercury is closest to the Sun. What is interesting about this planet? What is the mass of Mercury and its distinguishing features? Find out more about this ...
Planet features
With Mercury begins the countdown of the planets of the solar system. The distance from the Sun to Mercury is 57.91 million km. This is pretty close, so the temperature on the surface of the planet reaches 430 degrees.
In some ways, Mercury is like the moon. He has no satellites, the atmosphere is very discharged, and the surface is rugged by craters. The largest has a width of 1,550 km from the asteroid, which crashed into the planet about 4 billion years ago.
The rarefied atmosphere does not allow you to retain heat, so at night Mercury is very cold. The difference in night and day temperatures reaches 600 degrees and is the largest in our planetary system.
The mass of Mercury is 3.33 · 10 23 kg. Such an indicator makes the planet the easiest and smallest (after depriving Pluto of the name of the planet) in our system. The mass of Mercury is 0.055 from the earth. The planet is not much larger than the Earth’s natural satellite in size . The average radius of the planet Mercury is 2439.7 km.
In the bowels of Mercury contains a large number of metals, which form its core. This is the second density planet after Earth. The core is about 80% of Mercury.
Mercury Observations
The planet known to us under the name Mercury is the name of the Roman messenger god. We observed the planet back in the 14th century BC. The Sumerians called Mercury in astrological tables "a jumping planet." He was later named after the god of writing and wisdom, Naboo.
The Greeks gave the planet a name in honor of Hermes, calling it "Hermona". The Chinese called it the “Morning Star,” the Indians called Budha, the Germans identified it with Odin, and the Maya with an owl.
Before the invention of the telescope, it was difficult for European researchers to observe Mercury. For example, Nikolai Copernicus, describing the planet, used the observations of other scientists, not from the northern latitudes.
The invention of the telescope greatly facilitated the life of astronomers-researchers. For the first time from a telescope, Mercury observed Galileo Galilei in the 17th century. After him, the planet was watched by: Giovanni Zupi, John Bevis, Johann Schröter, Giuseppe Colombo and others.
The proximity to the Sun and the infrequent appearance in the sky always created difficulties for the study of Mercury. For example, the famous Hubble telescope cannot recognize objects so close to our star.
In the XX century, radar methods began to be used to study the planet, which made it possible to observe an object from the Earth. It is not easy to send spacecraft to the planet. This requires special manipulations, which consume a lot of fuel. In the entire history, only two ships visited Mercury: the Mariner-10 in 1975 and the Messenger in 2008.
Mercury in the night sky
The apparent magnitude of the planet is from −1.9 m to 5.5 m , which is enough to see it from the Earth. However, it is not easy to consider it due to the small angular distance with respect to the Sun.
The planet is visible for a short time after dusk sets in. In low latitudes and near the equator, the day lasts the least, so it’s easier to see Mercury in these places. The higher the latitude, the more difficult it is to observe the planet.
In the middle latitudes you can “catch” Mercury in the sky during the equinox, when twilight is the shortest. You can see it several times a year, both in the early morning and in the evening, during the periods when it is maximally distant from the Sun.
Conclusion
Mercury is the closest planet to the Sun. The mass of Mercury is the smallest of the planets in our system. The planet was observed long before the beginning of our era, however, to see Mercury, certain conditions are necessary. Therefore, it is the least studied of all the planets of the earth group.