Mercury

Mercury


     Mercury is the closest planet to the sun.  It’s average distance from

the sun is approximately fifty-eight million km and it’s diameter is 4875 km,

making it the second smallest planet in our solar system.  It’s volume and mass

are about 1/18 that of the earth and it’s average density is approximately equal

to that of the earth.  Mercury’s magnetic field is one-hundred times weaker than

that of Earth’s.  Mercury has the shortest revolution of all the planets in our

solar system and revolves around the sun in about eighty-eight days.  Radar

observations of the planet show that its period of rotation is 58.7 days, or

two-thirds of its period of revolution.  That means that Mercury has one and

one-half days in it’s year.

     Mercury doesn’t have an atmosphere, but it does have a thin layer of

helium.  The helium is actually solar wind that is trapped by Mercury’s weak

gravity.  Scientists think that collisions with protoplanets early in the

history of the solar system may have stripped away lighter materials, making

Mercury a very dense planet with an iron core extending outwards 4/5 of the way

to the surface.

     Mercury bares a very similar resemblance to our moon because it has a

lot of craters.  The craters, which cover seventy-five percent of Mercury’s

surface, 
This is ONLY a preview of the article. If you would like to view the entire document, you must subscribe to Academic Library. Please register below now!









Subscribe to Academic Library
When you subscribe to the Academic Library, you get 24-hour access to the online database containing full-text articles written by thousands of scholarly students. For only $8.95 per month, you receive unlimited monthly access to view and download all of our 40,000 articles available online. That is less than the price of one textbook!
This price includes:

24-hours-a-day, 7 days a week unlimited access on any computer with Internet access
Complete access to all 40,000 articles, essays, and research papers
Ability to view and download virtually unlimited number of documents
Ability to browse through perfectly arranged catalog of articles
Superior search and relevancy ranking techniques using Google SiteSearch and our local search engine
Instant access to the online database after registration


You can pay by credit card, checking account. You get instant access after registration:


You will be billed $ 8.95 every 30 days (recurring billing) starting on the day you subscribe.

Your credit card will automatically be renewed for your convenience until you cancel.




If you are already registered, please click here to login.