Mercury

Venealus Chew

Traneeka Brooks

Mercury

• Mercury is the closest to the sun and the eighth largest planet.

• Mercury is in many ways is similar to the moon.

• its surface is heavily cratered and very old

• But mercury is more dense than the moon

• Its iron core is larger then earth

Space crafts

• Mercury has been now visited by two space crafts Mariner 10 and the Messenger

• The Messenger was launched by NASA in 2004 and will orbit Mercury starting in 2011 after several flybyes

• Mariner 10 flew by 3 times in 1974 and 1975

• Only 45% of the surface was mapped

shockwaves

Interactive shockwave

shockwave2

Atmosphere

• Mercury actually has a very thin atmosphere consisting of atoms blasted off its surface by the solar wind

• Because Mercury is so hot, its atoms quickly escape into space.

• in contrast to the Earth and Venus whose atmospheres are very stable

• Mercury's atmosphere is constantly being replenished.

Magnetic Field, Satellites, visibility, Craters

• Mercury has a small magnetic field whose strength is about 1 percent of earths

• Mercury has no known satellites

• Is often visible with binoculars or even the naked eye but it is always very near the sun in difficult to see in the twilight sky.

• Some craters maybe ancient volcanic activity

Pictures

Time on Mercury

• On day on Mercury is like 58.65 Earth days

• One year on Mercury is like 87.97 days on Earth

Size related to earth

• Mercury is on 1/5 the size of Earth

Who discovered Mercury

• People later discovered that the planet Mercury was discovered by Johann Hieronymus Schroeter

• he lived from 1745 to 1816.

• He did sketches on the planet Mercury and they weren't very accurate

More Useful Facts

• Mercury is the fastest moving planet in our solar system. • The length across Mercury is 4,878km. • Mercury is a bit bigger than the Earth's. • The gravity on Mercury is 38% of the gravity on the

Earth. • If you were on the surface of Mercury the sun would be

three times bigger than on the Earth. • Mercury is the second smallest planet in our solar

system. • Did you know that Titan Saturn's moon is bigger than

Mercury? Titan is also bigger than Pluto.

Weather

• Due to the small atmosphere Mercury really has no weather other than wild fluctuations in temperature. 

• in fact, Mercury has the largest diurnal temperature spread of any planet in our solar system. 

• This is explained by a few factors. • Mercury rotates on its axis every 59 days

relative to fixed stars such as our Sun. 

Temperature

• Due to being so close to the sun mercury Is the hottest planet

Work citied

• Shockwaves- http://www.childrensuniversity.manchester.ac.uk/interactives/science/earthandbeyond/earthandbeyond_c.swf

• Facts- http://mars.sgi.com/worlds/cybmarz/mercury/html/index.html

• www.nineplanets.org/mercury/html

• http://www.ran.sd83.bc.ca/ranschool/mercurydt.htm

• http://www.crh.noaa.gov/fsd/astro/mercury.php