Académique Documents
Professionnel Documents
Culture Documents
Mercury
'Mercury Facts'
Mercury is the closest planet to the Sun. It is a terrestrial planet. That means a
planet made from rock like Earth. It does not have a gas atmosphere, so there is
no weather. For a long time, only one spacecraft, Mariner 10, had visited
Mercury. In January 2008, the MESSENGER spacecraft went by Mercury. It will go
by Mercury two more times before starting to go around the planet in 2011.
Mercury is 4879 km across. Mercury's diameter is just less than half the diameter
of the Earth. It is the smallest planet in the Solar System. Only dwarf planets like
Pluto are smaller. Mercury's small size and its closeness to the Sun sometimes
make it difficult to see without a telescope or binoculars. The best time to spot
Mercury in the sky is just after the sun goes down at night or shortly before it rises
in the morning.
It used to be believed that the same side of Mercury always faced the Sun. In
order for this to be true, Mercury would have to take the same amount of time to
rotate (spin around) as it does to circle the sun. Through careful observation we
now know that Mercury's rotation is somewhat faster than its orbit. Because of
the way the orbit and rotation work together, on Mercury, a day is actually
almost twice as long as a year.
A planet is a large space object which revolves around a star. It also reflects that star's light. Eight
planets have been discovered in our solar system. Mercury, Venus, Earth, and Mars are the planets
closest to the Sun. They are called the inner planets. The inner planets are made up mostly of rock.
The outer planets are Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune. Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune
are large balls of gases with rings around them. All eight planets travel around the Sun in a
different orbit. In its orbit, there are not many other objects like the planet.
Dwarf planets are objects that are similar to planets except that they orbit the Sun in areas where
there are many similar objects.
Makemake
Fact Sheet
What is Mercury?
____________________________________________________
____________________________________________________
____________________________________________________
____________________________________________________
____________________________________________________
____________________________________________________
____________________________________________________
____________________________________________________
____________________________________________________
____________________________________________________
____________________________________________________
____________________________________________________
____________________________________________________
____________________________________________________
____________________________________________________
____________________________________________________
____________________________________________________
____________________________________________________
____________________________________________________
____________________________________________________
____________________________________________________
____________________________________________________
____________________________________________________
____________________________________________________
What is Mercury made of?
____________________________________________________
____________________________________________________
____________________________________________________
____________________________________________________
____________________________________________________
____________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________