Mercury is around the sun period. Mercury: Secrets of the First Planet of the Solar System. Surface of Mercury: what it consists of

Space is a unique world in which not only cold, darkness and vacuum reign, life boils far beyond the invisible horizon, new planets are born, young asteroids and comets appear. For today, different Interesting Facts about the planet Mercury and the solar system, their diversity, uniqueness and pristine beauty.

1. Mercury is considered the smallest planet in our solar system, its size practically does not exceed the size of the Moon. The diameter of the equator of Mercury is 4879 kilometers.
2. Mercury is the only planet Solar system which does not have its own satellites.

   

3. At certain points on the surface of Mercury, one can observe how at sunrise the Sun rises slightly above the horizon, after which it sets back and rises again. The same phenomenon occurs during sunset. This phenomenon is explained by the elliptical shape of Mercury's orbit and its leisurely rotation around its own axis.

   

4. Mercury makes a complete revolution around the Sun in 88 Earth days... In order to turn around its axis, Mercury needs 58.65 Earth days, this number of days is 2/3 years on a distant planet.

   

5. Mercury is the only planet in the solar system where there are sharp temperature changes... On the side of the planet, which is lightened by the Sun, the air temperature reaches up to +430 degrees Celsius, at the same time its opposite side is shrouded at night, and the air temperature can exceed - 180 degrees Celsius. Therefore, the opinion that Mercury is the hottest planet is incorrect.

   

6. Mercury has such a phenomenon as the Joshua effect... The sun in the sky of this planet begins to move in a different direction, that is, the opposite, from west to east.

   

7. The duration of one day on the planet Mercury is 59 earth days, from this we can conclude that the year on this planet lasts no more than two days a year.

   

8. Mercury revolves very quickly around the Sun, which cannot be said about its speed of rotation around its axis..

   

9. Mercury has a magnetic field... In its center is an iron core, with the help of which a magnetic field is formed, the strength of which is equal to 1% of the earth's. Despite its small size, on the surface of Mercury is one of the largest crater in the solar system called Beethoven, whose diameter is 643 kilometers.

   

10. There are many craters on the surface of Mercury, many of them are very tall. They were formed as a result of numerous collisions with comets and asteroids flying by. Craters larger than 250 km in diameter are called basins.

    

11. Man managed to visit the planet twice... Today, research is underway on the orbit of Mercury thanks to the Messenger probe launched to its surface.

    

12. Until recently, man thought that Mercury had no atmosphere.... But the rumors were refuted after the Messenger probe working in orbit of the planet discovered a thin layer of gas near the surface of Mercury.

    

13. The mysterious planet Mercury was known in Ancient rome and Greece... Scientists of that time gave the planet two names. During the day they saw a planet called Apollo, and at night - its reflection, which they named Hermes. Later, the Romans gave the planet the name of the merchant god - Mercury.

    

14. On the planet's surface is the Heat Plain crater... This name was given to the crater due to its close proximity to the "hot longitudes". In cross section, the size of the crater is about 1300 km. There is an opinion that many centuries ago the surface of Mercury was damaged by a fallen body, the dimensions of which exceeded 100 km in diameter.

    

15. The rotation speed of the planet Mercury is twice the rotation speed of the planet Earth.

    

Mercury is the smallest planet in, is at the closest distance from the Sun, belongs to the planets terrestrial group... The mass of Mercury is about 20 times less than that of the Earth; the planet has no natural satellites. According to scientists, the planet has a frozen iron core, occupying about half of the planet's volume, followed by the mantle, on the surface - a silicate shell.

The surface of Mercury is very similar to the lunar, and is densely covered with craters, most of which are of impact origin - from collisions with debris that remained from the time of the formation of the solar system about 4 billion years therefore. The planet's surface is covered with long, deep cracks, which may have formed as a result of the gradual cooling and contraction of the planet's core.

The similarity between Mercury and the Moon lies not only in the landscape, but also in a number of other features, in particular, the diameter of both celestial bodies - 3476 km for the Moon, 4878 for Mercury. A day on Mercury is approximately 58 Earth days, or exactly 2/3 of the Mercury year. Another curious fact of the "lunar" similarity is connected with this - from the Earth, Mercury, like the Moon, always has only the "front side" visible.

The same effect would be if the Mercurian day was exactly equal to the Mercurian year, therefore, before the beginning of the space era and observations using radar, it was believed that the period of rotation of the planet around the axis is 58 days.

Mercury moves very slowly around its axis, but it moves very quickly in its orbit. On Mercury, solar days are equal to 176 Earth days, that is, during this time, thanks to the addition of the orbital and axial motions, the planet manages to pass two "Mercury" years!

Atmosphere and temperature on Mercury

Thanks to spacecraft, it was possible to find out that Mercury has an extremely rarefied helium atmosphere, which contains an insignificant state of neon, argon and hydrogen.

As for the proper properties of Mercury, they are in many respects similar to the lunar ones - on the night side the temperature drops to - 180 degrees Celsius, which is enough to freeze carbon dioxide and liquefy oxygen, on the daytime it rises to 430, which is enough to melt lead and zinc ... Nevertheless, due to the extremely weak thermal conductivity of the loose surface layer, already at a depth of one meter, the temperature stabilizes at a level of plus 75.

This is due to the lack of a noticeable atmosphere on the planet. However, there is still some semblance of the atmosphere - from the atoms emitted in the composition of the solar wind, mostly metallic.

Exploring and observing Mercury

It is possible to observe Mercury, even without the help of a telescope, after sunset and before its rise, however, certain difficulties are created due to the location of the planet, even during these periods it is not always noticeable.

In the projection onto the celestial sphere, the planet is visible as a star-shaped object that does not move further from the Sun by more than 28 degrees of arc, with a strongly varying brightness - from minus 1.9 to plus 5.5 magnitude, that is, about 912 times. It is possible to notice such an object at dusk only in ideal atmospheric conditions and if you know where to look. And the displacement of the "star" per day exceeds four degrees of the arc - it was for this "speed" that the planet at one time received the name in honor of the Roman god of trade with winged sandals.

Near perihelion, Mercury comes so close to the Sun, and its orbital speed increases so much that for an observer on Mercury, the Sun moves backward. Mercury is so close to the Sun that it is very difficult to observe it.

In mid-latitudes (including Russia), the planet is visible only in the summer months and after sunset.

You can observe Mercury in the sky, but you need to know exactly where to look - the planet is visible very low above the horizon (lower left corner)

1. The temperature on the surface of Mercury varies significantly: from -180 C on the dark side to +430 C on sunny side... At the same time, since the axis of the planet almost does not deviate from 0 degrees, even on the planet closest to the Sun (at its poles), there are craters, the bottom of which has never been reached by the sun's rays.

2. Around the Sun, Mercury makes one revolution in 88 Earth days, and around its axis one revolution in 58.65 days, which is 2/3 of one year on Mercury. This paradox is caused by the fact that Mercury is affected by the tidal effect of the Sun.

3. Mercury has tension magnetic field 300 times less than the strength of the magnetic field of the planet Earth, the magnetic axis of Mercury is tilted to the axis of rotation by 12 degrees.

4. Mercury is the smallest of all the terrestrial planets, it is so small that it is inferior in size to the largest moons of Saturn and Jupiter - Titan and Ganymede.

5. Despite the fact that Venus and Mars are closest to the Earth in terms of their orbits, Mercury is closer to the Earth for a longer period of time than any other planet.

6. The surface of Mercury resembles the surface of the Moon - it, like the Moon, is dotted with a large number of craters. The biggest and most important difference between these two bodies is the presence on Mercury. a large number jagged slopes - the so-called scarps, which extend for several hundred kilometers. They were formed by compression, which accompanied the cooling of the planet's core.

7. Almost the most noticeable feature on the planet's surface is the Plain of Heat. It is a crater that got its name from its location near one of the "hot longitudes". 1300 km - the size of the cross section of this crater. The body, which in time immemorial hit the surface of Mercury, had to have a diameter of at least 100 km.

8. Around the Sun, the planet Mercury rotates at an average speed of 47.87 km / s, which makes it the fastest planet in the solar system.

9. Mercury is the only planet in the solar system. Joshua effect... This effect looks like this: the Sun, if we observed it from the surface of Mercury, at a certain moment would have to stop in the sky, and then continue moving, but not from east to west, but vice versa - from west to east. This is possible due to the fact that for about 8 days the speed of the rotational motion of Mercury is less than the orbital speed of the planet.

10. Not so long ago, thanks to mathematical modeling, scientists came up with the assumption that Mercury is not an independent planet, but a long-lost satellite of Venus. However, while there is no material evidence, this is nothing more than a theory.

What is the mass of Mercury and its distinctive features? Find out more about this ...

Features of the planet

The countdown of the planets of the solar system begins with Mercury. The distance from the Sun to Mercury is 57.91 million km. It's pretty close, so the temperature on the planet's surface reaches 430 degrees.

In some ways, Mercury is similar to the Moon. He has no satellites, the atmosphere is very rarefied, and the surface is indented with craters. The largest is 1550 km wide from an asteroid that crashed into the planet about 4 billion years ago.

The rarefied atmosphere does not allow trapping heat, which is why Mercury is very cold at night. The difference in night and day temperatures reaches 600 degrees and is the largest in our planetary system.

The mass of Mercury is 3.33 · 10 23 kg. Such an indicator makes the planet the lightest and smallest (after the deprivation of Pluto the title of the planet) in our system. The mass of Mercury is 0.055 of the earth. Po not much more The average radius is 2,439.7 km.

The bowels of Mercury contain a large amount of metals, which form its core. It is the second densest planet after Earth. The core is about 80% of Mercury.

Observing Mercury

We know the planet as Mercury - this is the name of the Roman messenger god. The planet was observed as early as the XIV century BC. The Sumerians called Mercury in the astrological tables "the jumping planet." Later it was named after the god of writing and wisdom "Naboo".

The Greeks gave the planet a name in honor of Hermes, calling it "Hermaon". The Chinese called it "Morning Star", the Indians - Budha, the Germans identified with Odin, and the Maya - with the owl.

Before the invention of the telescope, it was difficult for European researchers to observe Mercury. For example, Nicolaus Copernicus, describing the planet, used the observations of other scientists, not from northern latitudes.

The invention of the telescope made life much easier for astronomers-researchers. For the first time from a telescope, Galileo Galilei observed Mercury in the 17th century. After him, the planet was observed by: Giovanni Zupi, John Bevis, Johann Schreter, Giuseppe Colombo, etc.

The close location from the Sun and the infrequent appearance in the sky have always created difficulties for the study of Mercury. For example, the famous Hubble telescope cannot recognize objects so close to our star.

In the 20th century, radar methods began to be used to study the planet, which made it possible to observe the object from Earth. It is not easy to send spacecraft to the planet. This requires special handling, which consumes a lot of fuel. Throughout history, only two ships have visited Mercury: Mariner 10 in 1975 and Messenger in 2008.

Mercury in the night sky

The apparent magnitude of the planet is from −1.9 m to 5.5 m, which is quite enough to see it from Earth. However, it is not easy to see it due to its small angular distance in relation to the Sun.

The planet is visible for a short time after dusk. In low latitudes and near the equator, the day lasts the least, so it is easier to see Mercury in these places. The higher the latitude, the more difficult it is to observe the planet.

In mid-latitudes, you can "catch" Mercury in the sky during the equinox period, when twilight is the shortest. You can see it several times a year, both in the early morning and in the evening, during periods when it is as far away from the Sun as possible.

Conclusion

Mercury is itself The mass of Mercury is the smallest of the planets in our system. The planet was observed long before the beginning of our era, however, to see Mercury, certain conditions are required. Therefore, it is the least studied of all the terrestrial planets.

But after he was demoted from the status of "full-fledged" planets, the primacy passed to Mercury, about which our today's article.

The history of the discovery of the planet Mercury

The history of Mercury and our knowledge about this planet is rooted in antiquity, in fact, it is one of the first planets known to mankind. So Mercury was observed in ancient Sumer, one of the first developed civilizations on Earth. The Sumerians associated Mercury with the local god of writing, Naboo. The Babylonian and ancient Egyptian priests, who were also excellent astronomers of the ancient world, also knew about this planet.

As for the origin of the name of the planet "Mercury", it comes already from the Romans, who named this planet in honor of the ancient god Mercury (in the Greek version of Hermes), the patron saint of trade, crafts and the messenger of other Olympic gods. Also, astronomers of the past sometimes poetically called Mercury the morning or evening dawn, according to the time of its appearance in the starry firmament.

God Mercury, after whom the planet was named.

Also, ancient astronomers believed that Mercury and its closest neighbor, the planet Venus, revolve around the Sun, and not around the Earth. And now, in turn, it revolves around the Earth.

Features of the planet Mercury

Perhaps the most interesting feature of this small planet is the fact that it is on Mercury that the largest temperature fluctuations occur: since Mercury is the closest to the Sun, its surface warms up to 450 C during the day. But on the other hand, Mercury does not have its own atmosphere and cannot keep heat, as a result, at night the temperature drops to minus 170 C, here is the largest temperature difference in our solar system.

In its size, Mercury is only slightly larger than our Moon. Its surface is also similar to the moon, riddled with craters, traces of small asteroids and meteorites.

An interesting fact: about 4 billion years ago, a huge asteroid crashed into Mercury, the force of this impact can be compared to the explosion of a trillion megaton bombs. From this impact, a giant crater remained on the surface of Mercury, about the size of modern Texas, astronomers named it Basins Caloris crater.

Also very interesting is the fact that there is real ice on Mercury, which is hidden in the depths of the craters there. Ice could be brought to Mercury by meteorites, or even formed from water vapor that escapes from the bowels of the planet.

Another interesting feature of this planet is its decrease in size. The decrease itself is believed by scientists to be caused by the gradual cooling of the planet, which occurs over millions of years. As a result of cooling, its surface is crushed and lobed-like rocks are formed.

The density of Mercury is high, higher only for our Earth, in the center of the planet there is a huge molten core, which makes up 75% of the diameter of the entire planet.

With the help of the Mariner 10 research probe sent by NASA to the surface of Mercury, an amazing discovery was made - there is a magnetic field on Mercury. This was all the more surprising, since according to the astrophysical data of this planet: the rotation speed and the presence of a molten core, there should not be a magnetic field there. Despite the fact that the strength of the magnetic field of Mercury is only 1% of the strength of the Earth's magnetic field, it is overactive - the magnetic field of the solar wind periodically falls into the field of Mercury and strong magnetic tornadoes arise from interaction with it, sometimes reaching the surface of the planet.

The speed of the planet Mercury, according to which it revolves around the Sun, is 180,000 km per hour. The orbit of Mercury is oval and is highly elongated epileptically, as a result of which it either approaches the Sun by 47 million kilometers, then moves away by 70 million kilometers. If we could observe the Sun from the surface of Mercury, then from there it would look three times larger than from the Earth.

One year on Mercury is equal to 88 Earth days.

Mercury photo

We bring to your attention a photo of this planet.

Temperature on Mercury

What is the temperature on Mercury? Although this planet is located closest to the Sun, the primacy of the warmest planet in the solar system belongs to its neighbor Venus, whose thick atmosphere, which literally envelops the planet, allows it to retain heat. As for Mercury, due to the lack of an atmosphere, its heat evaporates and the planet, as it quickly heats up and cools down quickly, every day and every night there are just huge temperature drops from +450 C during the day to -170 C at night. At the same time, the average temperature on Mercury will be 140 C, but this is not cold, not hot, the weather on Mercury leaves much to be desired.

Is there life on Mercury

As you probably guessed, with such temperature fluctuations, the existence of life is not possible.

Atmosphere of mercury

We wrote above that there is no atmosphere on Mercury, although one can argue with this statement, the atmosphere of the planet Mercury is not absent, it is simply different and differs from what we actually understand by the atmosphere.

The original atmosphere of this planet was scattered 4.6 billion years ago due to the very weak Mercury, which simply could not hold it. In addition, proximity to the Sun and constant solar winds also did not contribute to the preservation of the atmosphere in the classical sense of the term. Nevertheless, a faint atmosphere on Mercury has survived, and it is the most volatile and insignificant atmospheres in the solar system.

The composition of the atmosphere of Mercury includes helium, potassium, sodium, and also water vapor. In addition, the current atmosphere of the planet is periodically replenished from various diverse sources, such as particles of the solar wind, volcanic degassing, and radioactive decay of elements.

Also, despite its small size and scanty density, the atmosphere of Mercury can be divided into as many as four sections: the lower, middle and upper layers, as well as the exosphere. The lower atmosphere has a lot of dust in it, which gives Mercury a peculiar red-brown appearance, it warms up to high temperatures, thanks to the heat that is reflected from the surface. The middle atmosphere has a jet similar to that of the Earth. Mercury's upper atmosphere actively interacts with solar winds, which also heat it to high temperatures.

The surface of the planet Mercury is a bare rock of volcanic origin. Billions of years ago, molten lava cooled to a rocky, gray surface. This surface is also due to the color of Mercury - dark gray, although thanks to the dust in the lower layers of the atmosphere, it seems that Mercury is red-brown. The images of the surface of Mercury taken from the research probe "Messenger" are very reminiscent of the lunar landscape, the only thing on Mercury there are no "lunar seas", while there are no Mercury scarps on the Moon.

Rings of Mercury

Does Mercury have rings? Indeed, many planets of the solar system, for example, and of course they are present. Alas, Mercury has no rings from the word at all. Rings cannot exist on Mercury, again due to the proximity of this planet to the Sun, because the rings of other planets are formed from ice debris, a piece of asteroids and other celestial objects that are simply melted near Mercury by hot solar winds.

Moons of Mercury

As well as rings of satellites, Mercury does not. This is due to the fact that there are not so many asteroids flying around this planet - potential candidates for satellites when they come into contact with the planet's gravity.

Rotation of Mercury

The rotation of the planet Mercury is very unusual, namely the orbital period of its rotation is shorter than the duration of rotation around its axis. This duration is less than 180 Earth days. While the orbital period is half. In other words, Mercury traverses two orbits in three of its revolutions.

How long to fly to Mercury

At the nearest point minimum distance from Earth to Mercury is 77.3 million kilometers. How long will it take for modern spacecraft to cover such a distance? Fastest for today spacecraft NASA - New Horizons, which was launched towards Pluto, has a speed of about 80,000 kilometers per hour. It would take him about 40 days to reach Mercury, which is relatively short.

The first spacecraft, Mariner-10, launched to Mercury back in 1973, was not so fast, it took 147 days to reach this planet. The technique is being improved, and perhaps in the near future it will be possible to fly to Mercury in a few hours.

• Mercury is not easy enough to find in the sky, as it "likes to play hide and seek" literally "hiding" behind the Sun. Nevertheless, ancient astronomers knew about it. This is explained by the fact that in those distant times the sky was darker due to the absence of light pollution, and the planet was seen much better.
• The displacement of Mercury's orbit helped confirm Albert Einstein's famous theory of relativity. In short, it tells how the light of a star changes when another planet revolves around it. Astronomers reflected a radar signal from Mercury, and the path of this signal coincided with the predictions of general relativity.
• The magnetic field of Mercury, whose very existence is very mysterious, in addition to everything else, also differs at the poles of the planet. At the south pole, it is more intense than at the north.

Mercury video

And in the end an interesting one documentary about the flight to the planet Mercury.

Photo taken from the MESSENGER spacecraft.

Planet Mercury is the closest planet to the Sun. It is located at a distance of only 58 million km from our star (for comparison, 150 million km from the Earth to the Sun). Like all planets, He is named after a Roman god, in this case, the Roman god of commerce - just like the ancient Greek god Hermes.

Its diameter is only 4,879 km, making it the smallest planet in the solar system. It is even smaller than the moons Ganymede and Titan. But it does have a metal core that makes up almost half of the planet's volume. This gives it more mass and strong gravity, more than one would expect. On Mercury, your weight would be 38% of your weight on Earth.

Orbit

Mercury revolves around the Sun in a highly elongated elliptical orbit.

At its closest point, it approaches the Sun by 46 million km, and then recedes up to 70 million km. It only takes the planet 88 days to orbit the sun.

At first glance, Mercury is very similar to our Moon. It has a crater-covered surface as well as ancient lava flows. The largest crater is the Caloris Basin, nearly 1,300 km across. Like our moon, it has no discernible atmosphere. But under the surface is very different from the moon. It has a huge iron core surrounded by a thick layer of mantle rock and thin crust. the force of gravity on the planet is 1/3 of the Earth.

It rotates slowly on its axis, making one revolution in 59 days.

Atmosphere

It is very rarefied and consists of captured particles of the solar wind. Without an atmosphere, it cannot retain heat from the sun. The side facing the Sun heats up to 450 ° C, while the shadow side cools down to -170 ° C.

Study

BepiColumbo, which was launched to explore the planet

The first spacecraft to reach Mercury was Mariner 10, which flew past the planet in 1974. He managed to photograph about half of the planet's surface over several flights. Then in 2004 NASA launched the MESSENGER spacecraft mission. At the moment, the spacecraft has entered orbit and is studying it in great detail.

If you want to see it without a telescope, it is difficult to do, because the planet is in the bright rays of the Sun most of the time.

During visibility, you can see it in the west just after sunset, or in the east just before sunrise. In a telescope, a planet has phases like the moon, depending on its position in its orbit.