In comparison, earths core makes up a lesser part of its mass. The atmosphere of mercury is a tenuous exosphere that contains varying elements. Helium is the funny gas that makes you sound like donald duck if you suck it from a party balloon. Mercury, real name farrokh bulsara, was born in zanzibar, tanzania in 1946 and had moved to england with his parents in the 1960s. Mercury is the smallest planet in the solar system and the closest to the sun. Regardless of how hard its been to get to know mercury. Mercury facts for kids interesting facts about planet. However, since this world doesnt have a real atmosphere to entrap any heat, at night temperatures can plummet to minus 275 degrees f minus 170 degrees c, a more than 1,100 degrees f 600 degree c.
Atmosphere of mercury mercury has very little atmosphere. Not the kind of atmosphere that we have here on earth, or even the thin atmosphere that surrounds mars. Mercurys original atmosphere dissipated shortly after the planet formed 4. All about mercury nasa space place nasa science for kids. Mercurys magnetic field is offset relative to the planets equator. Mercury fun facts cool kid facts fun facts for kids.
The lack of atmosphere also contributes to the planets wild temperature extremes. Mercury is the densest planet in the solar system, followed by earth if one takes into account the planets internal compression because of gravity. Seuss, famous author of childrens books and alvin ailey, a pioneer in dance. Heres a great worksheet for teaching your kids all about the planet mercury. Lack of an atmosphere also means mercurys surface is pockmarked by numerous impact craters, since incoming meteors dont encounter any. Uranus was the husband of gaia, the goddess of the earth. It was certainly interesting freddie mercury is a huge icon and his legacy remains today, and hearing stories from a person so close to him was interesting enough for me to finish the book. Some of the gas particles come from the solar wind. Thin atmosphere of mercury, formation and composition. Did you know that its the smallest planet in our solar system. Since it has no significant atmosphere to stop impacts, the planet is pockmarked with craters. Mercury is unusually dense because it is composed of a high percentage of metal.
Mercury travels around the sun more quickly than any of the other planets in the solar system. Although its potential for toxicity in highly contaminated areas such as minamata bay, japan, in the 1950s and 1960s, is well documented, research has shown that mercury can be a threat to the health of people and wildlife in many environments that are not. Its too small and too hot to keep any air, although it does have what is called an exosphere, a tenuous collection of calcium, hydrogen, helium, oxygen, sodium, and potassium atoms that seem to come and go. Chemicals leak out of the planets surface to replace them, so mercurys atmosphere is continually changing. Solar light pushes the atmospheric gases away from the sun, creating a cometlike tail behind the planet. In fact, mercurys atmosphere is so thin that is barely exists. Mercurys atmosphere contains small amounts of hydrogen, helium, and oxygen. Unlike our thick atmosphere, mercury has a very thin atmosphere. Unlike mariner 10, the messenger spacecraft had instruments that could measure ions. With virtually no atmosphere, mercury feels very little in terms of traditional weather. However, mercury has a very thin atmosphere, so the heat of the day escapes very quickly at nighttime. Mercury has a very tenuous and highly variable atmosphere surfacebound exosphere containing hydrogen, helium, oxygen, sodium, calcium, potassium and water vapor, with a combined pressure level of about 10. Facts about mercury a year on mercury is just 88 days long. Meet mary austin, the woman who stole freddie mercurys.
Mercury may have small ice caps at its north and south poles. Mercury is the smallest planet in our solar system. Mercury has a thick crust that is composed mostly of silicate rocks. The surface of mercury, at first glance, looks very much like that of the moon, but in fact it is different in several ways. These rare transits fall within several days of 8 may and 10. Mercury has a low gravity and receives large gusts of solar winds from the nearby sun. Inner planets earth science simple book production. The metal is concentrated in a comparatively huge core, which accounts for nearly 75 percent of mercurys. The exospheric species originate either from the solar wind or from the planetary crust. Because mercury is so small, its gravity is weaker than other planets. From the surface of mercury, the sun would appear more than three times as large as it does when viewed. Mercury has a very tenuous and highly variable atmosphere surfacebound exosphere. Its only the second hottest planet, though, as unlike the hottest plant venus with its thick atmosphere, mercury s thin atmosphere is less able to trap in the heat.
As a result, the gases in its atmosphere keep escaping into space. Mercury is our smallest planet, and the one closest to the sun. The core at mercury s center is mostly made up of iron and takes up about 75% of the planets radius. With its thick, corrosive atmosphere, the surface temperature is extremely high. Mercury does have a very thin atmosphere called an exosphere.
Mercurys exosphere is composed mostly of oxygen, sodium, hydrogen, helium and potassium. Its gaseous envelope is composed of more than 96 percent carbon dioxide and 3. As the planet nearest the sun, the surface of mercury can reach a scorching 840 degrees f 450 degrees c. Many atoms in mercury s surface rocks and in its tenuous atmosphere become ionized when struck by energetic particles in the solar wind and in mercury s magnetosphere. This was because of mercury s lower gravity, and because its so. For more information on mercury, check out our article. The closest planet to the sun, mercury is also the smallest planet in the solar system. Mercury is the smallest planet in the solar system. The messenger spacecraft revealed that mercury has some unique landforms, more smooth plains, and surface compositions low in. It was discovered in december, 1781 by william herschel, a germanborn british astronomer.
The elements contained in mercurys exosphere are helium, hydrogen, oxygen, sodium, calcium, potassium and water vapor. Others are made by radioactive decay or when micrometeorites smash into the surface. With its extremely thin atmosphere, mercury has a large temperature range. Instead of an atmosphere, mercury possesses a thin exosphere made up of atoms blasted off the surface by the solar wind and striking meteoroids. Mercury, interior, atmosphere, moons, poles, myths. Kids boost their mercury knowledge, then do some fun activities to see if they can remember what theyve learned. Mercury has a very thin atmosphere, which is made up of atoms from the surface of the planet that have been blown away by solar winds. Venus is the second planet from the sun and the closest planet to earth, in distance and in size. The solar wind blasts the closest planet to the sun, leaving it with the thinnest atmosphere of all the planets.
This page is a continuously updated list of the most incredible, aweinspiring and unbelievable facts about space. Mercurys density implies a solid ironrich core that accounts for about 60% of its volume 75% of its radius. Austin was born in 1951 into an impoverished family in south. Introduction because mercury is so close to the sun, it is hard to directly observe from earth except during dawn or twilight, when the suns brightness doesnt outshine little mercury. Hot and barren with hardly any atmosphere, its rocky surface is covered in craters. Beneath the crust it is a mantle also made of silicate rocks that is hundreds of kilometers thick.
However, times each century, observers on earth can watch mercury pass across the face of the sun, an event called a transit. Mercurys magnetic equator is shifted nearly 20% of the planets radius towards the north, the largest ratio of all planets. Prior to messenger, mercury had been visited by only one other spacecraft, mariner 10, and we knew little more than mercurys average density the second greatest of all the planets, the composition of its atmosphere thinnest of the terrestrial planets, the fact that it possesses a global magnetic field, and its extreme variations in. Scientists are still exploring and learning about mercurys atmosphere, but they have discovered a few things. The sheer vastness of it, along with the trillions upon trillions of objects in the many billion galaxies of the universe is almost incomprehensible to the human brain. Mercurys thin atmosphere contains hydrogen, helium, and oxygen.
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