Mercury is the closest planet to the Sun. Its diameter is 40% smaller than Earth and 40% larger than the Moon. It is even smaller than Jupiter’s moon Ganymede and Saturn’s moon Titan.
In Roman mythology Mercury is the god of commerce, travel and thievery, the Roman counterpart of the Greek god Hermes, the messenger of the Gods. The planet probably received this name because it moves so quickly across the sky.
1 Mercury Shows Its True Colors to MESSENGER (MErcury Surface, Space ENvironment, GEochemitry, and Ranging) . 30 January 2008. Credit: NASA/JHUAPL #
3 MESSENGER Views Mercury's Horizon. 16 January 2008. Credit: NASA/Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory/Carnegie Institution of Washington #
4 MESSENGER Looks to the North, 26 January 2008. It is interesting to compare MESSENGER's view to the north with the image looking toward the south pole, released on January 21. Comparing these two images, it can be seen that the terrain near the south pole is more heavily cratered while some of the region near the north pole shows less cratered, smooth plains material, consistent with the general observations of the poles made by Mariner 10. Credit: NASA/Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory/Carnegie Institution of Washington #
5 A Big and Brilliant Ray System. Credit: NASA/Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory/Carnegie Institution of Washington #
6 On January 14, 2008, the MESSENGER spacecraft passed 200 kilometers (124 miles) above the surface of Mercury and snapped the first pictures of a side of Mercury not previously seen by spacecraft. This image shows that previously unseen side, with a view looking toward Mercury's south pole. The southern limb of the planet can be seen in the bottom right of the image. The bottom left of the image shows the transition from the sunlit, day side of Mercury to the dark, night side of the planet, a transition line known as the terminator. In the region near the terminator, the sun shines on the surface at a low angle, causing the rims of craters and other elevated surface features to cast long shadows, accentuating height differences in the image. Credit: NASA/Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory/Carnegie Institution of Washington #
7 On January 14, 2008, the MESSENGER spacecraft observed about half of the hemisphere not seen by Mariner 10. The image shows features as small as 400 meters (0.25 miles) in size and is about 370 kilometers (230 miles) across. Credit: NASA/Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory/Carnegie Institution of Washington #
8 This false-color image of Mercury shows the great Caloris impact basin visible in this image as a large, circular, orange feature in the center of the picture. Caloris basin is about 1,550 kilometers in diameter (960 miles) Credit: NASA/Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory/Arizona State #
9 This image of Mercury passing in front of the sun was captured on 8 November 2006 by the Solar Optical Telescope (SOT), one of three primary instruments on board the Hinode solar observatory. Credit: Hinode JAXA/NASA/PPARC #
10 From such highly detailed close-ups, planetary geologists can study the processes that have shaped Mercury's surface over the past 4 billion years. One of the highest and longest scarps (cliffs) yet seen on Mercury curves from the top center down across the left side of this image. Great forces in Mercury's crust have thrust the terrain occupying the right two-thirds of the picture up and over the terrain to the left. An impact crater has subsequently destroyed a small part of the scarp near the bottom of the image. Credit: NASA/Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory/Carnegie Institution of Washington #
11 This image shows the largest feature identified as a volcano in the upper center of the scene. The volcano has a central kidney-shaped depression, which is the vent, and a broad smooth dome surrounding the vent. The volcano is located just inside the rim of the Caloris impact basin. The rim of the basin is marked with hills and mountains, as visible in this image. The role of volcanism in Mercury's history had been previously debated, but MESSENGER's discovery of the first identified volcanoes on Mercury's surface shows that volcanism was active in the distant past on the innermost planet. Credit: NASA/Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory/Carnegie Institution of Washington #
12 The Narrow Angle Camera of the Mercury Dual Imaging System (MDIS) on the MESSENGER spacecraft obtained high-resolution images of the floor of the Caloris basin on January 14, 2008. Near the center of the basin, an area unseen by Mariner 10, this remarkable feature - nicknamed "the spider" by the science team - was revealed. Credit: NASA/JHUAPL #
13 Images such as this one can be read in terms of a sequence of geological events and provide insight into the relative timing of processes that have acted on Mercury's surface in the past. Credit: NASA/JHUAPL #
14 Part of an old, large crater occupies most of the lower left portion of the frame. An arrangement of ridges and cliffs in the shape of a "Y" crosses the crater's floor. The shadows defining the ridges are cast on the floor of the crater by the Sun shining from the right, indicating a descending stair-step of plains. Credit: NASA/JHUAPL #
15 First look to the unknown side of Mercury. Credit: NASA/Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory/Carnegie Institution of Washington #
16 Mercury southwest area from Mariner 10. Credit: NASA/Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory/Carnegie Institution of Washington #
17 Mercury is the target for a space probe launched by NASA back in 2003. The space probe is called MErcury Surface, Space ENvironment, GEochemistry, and Ranging — or MESSENGER for short. MESSENGER is presently on a complex trajectory around the inner solar system bleeding speed to eventually orbit Mercury. In fact, two weeks ago, on Oct. 6, the little space probe zipped passed Mercury at an altitude of only 200 km, returning the most detailed pictures of a side of Mercury we can’t see from earth. Credit: NASA/Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory/Carnegie Institution of Washington #
18 This two image mosaic of Mercury was constructed from photos taken by Mariner 10 a few hours before the spacecraft's closest and first encounter with the planet on March 29, 1974. Credit: USGS, and NASA #
19 This photomosaic of Mercury was constructed from photos taken by Mariner 10 six hours before the spacecraft flew past the planet on March 29, 1974. These images were taken from a distance of 5,380,000 kilometers (3,340,000 miles). Credit: USGS, and NASA #
21 By combining images taken through different filters in the visible and infrared, the MESSENGER data allow Mercury to be seen in a variety of high-resolution color views not previously possible. MESSENGER's eyes can see far beyond the color range of the human eye, and the colors seen in the accompanying image are somewhat different from what a human would see. Credit: NASA/JHUAPL #
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this is awesome!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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this is ss amazing!!! i also really liked the Jupiter one :]
Mercury (planet), second smallest of the planets in the solar system. Mercury orbits closest to the Sun of all the planets, at an average distance of approximately 58 million km (about 36 million mi, or 0.3871 astronomical unit (AU)). An AU is equal to the average distance between the Earth and the Sun, or about 150 million km (93 million mi). The planet’s diameter is 4,879 km (3,032 mi), and its volume and mass are about one-eighteenth that of Earth. Mercury’s mean density, 5.4 g/cm³, is nearly as great as that of Earth and is higher than that of any of the other planets. The force of gravity on the planet’s surface is about one-third of that on Earth’s surface or about twice the surface gravity on the Moon. Mercury has no moons of its own.
Mercury revolves once about the Sun every 87.97 days. Radar observations of the planet show that it rotates only once every 58.65 days, two-thirds of its period of revolution. Only three of the planet’s days, therefore, occur during every two of its years. The side facing the Sun gets very hot, while the side facing away quickly cools to frigid temperatures. Mercury was named for the messenger of the gods in Roman mythology.
The point in Mercury’s orbit at which the planet is closest to the Sun (called the planet’s perihelion) moves a tiny amount every orbit, too much to be accounted for by the gravitational influence of other planets. The observation of these changes in Mercury’s perihelion was one of the first confirmations of Einstein’s theory of relativity, which predicted their existence.
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[...] There are also at least 63 moons, including the four large moons called the Galilean moons that were first discovered by Galileo Galilei in 1610. Ganymede, the largest of these moons, has a diameter greater than that of the planet Mercury. [...]
[...] Mercurio [...]