Mercury - First planet of solarsystem

Mercury


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Introduction:

Mercury is the innermost and smallest planet in the Solar System, orbiting the Sun once every 88 days. It is almost a twin of the Earth's Moon. Even though it is the nearest planet to the sun, it reflects only 6% of the sunlight that fall on it.The orbit of Mercury has the highest eccentricity of all the Solar System planets, and it has the smallest axial tilt.

It is difficult to observe details on mercury as it would be to examine the surface of the Moon if it were300 times farther from Earth. Comparatively little is known about Mercury; ground-based telescopes reveal only an illuminated crescent with limited detail.
A telescope magnifying 150 times shows Mercury just the half the size of the Moon seen with the unaided eye. It is easily identified only when it is close to the western horizon after sunset, horizon-induced poor seeing often causes a mushy telescopic view. It has a diameter of approximately 4878 km at its equator, which is about 2/5th of earth’s diameter.

Do you know/ Interesting facts:

> In ancient China, Mercury was known as Ch'en-Hsing, the Hour Star. It was associated with the direction north and the phase of water in the Wu Xing.

> The god Odin (or Woden) of Germanic paganism was associated with the planet Mercury and the name Wednesday was derived from Woden's day.

> In 1974, the first visit to Mercury was made by the Mariner 10 spacecraft.

> Mercury is the only planet whose orbit is coplanar with its equator.

> Mercury can only be seen early morning and in twilight.

> Mercury is denser than any other planet in the solar system, except Earth.

> Mercury takes 59 days to make a rotation, but only 88 days to circle the Sun

> There are no moons on mercury

> Mercury is the innermost and smallest planet in the solar system. It appears as a bright star from Earth.

> Pluto is only smaller than mercury of the nine planets in our solar system.

> The planet mercury travels at almost 50 km/s (31 miles/s), which is faster than any other planets.

> If you weigh 100 kg on the Earth, you would weigh 38 kg on mercury.

> If you spent one day on mercury, from certain spots then you would be able to see 2 sunrises and 2 sunsets.

> One year on mercury is about 88 days. So if you were 10 years old on earth then your age would be 41 and half years old in mercury years.

> Hindu mythology used the name Budha for Mercury.