The solar sisytem is composed of nine planets:

Our planet is the first from the Sun

The mythology of Mercury derives from the Babylonian times, where Mercury was known as Nebu, the son of Marduk., the king of the Gods. Marduk became king by slaying the sea monster Tiamat and establishing the order in the Universe, which, until that moment, was messy. Nebu became then the scribe of the Gods:his job consisted in write down the laws and the edicts of Marduk and communicate them to men. Nebu became later the Greek Hermes, the messenger of the Gods, and then the Roman Mercury, from which derives the name of the planet used nowadays. In Roman and Greek mythology, Mercury (Hermes) was the protector of thieves, of crooks and travelers.

Some notes about its internal and external structure: EXTERNAL STRUCTURE: ●Its atmosphere is very thin, made of helium and sodium, with minimum tracks of other substances. Mercury has a very low gravitational pull, so it isn’t able to attract enough gasses to have an atmosphere as the Earth has. The consequence is that the temperature on the surface varies from -183°C to 427°C.

●INTERNAL STRUCTURE: ●Mercury is the smallest terrestrial (or inner) planet, so it is made above all of rocks: Its surface consists in a thin crust that contains above all silicates. Under the crust there is the mantel, that is liquid, very thin and made of silicates, while the nucleus, probably made of nickel and iron, is solid inside and liquid near the mantel. The surface of the planet is littered with craters and scars of impact because of the crash of many meteorites.

1.Crust = the most external part of the planet. 2.Mantle = is the part that surrounds the Nucleus, and consists of silicates. 3.Nucleus = is the most internal part of the planet and it is radioactive.

The period of revolution of Mercury corresponds to 87,9 Earth days, because of his closeness to the Sun. Mercury is so close to the Sun that it can be observed only immediately after the sunset to West and before the sunrise to East.

The most interesting thing is that Mercury takes about 88 days to revolve, while takes 58,6 Earth days to rotate: it revolves twice in the same time it rotates three times. So the period of exposition to the Sun is about 176 Earth days: The “day” on Mercury lasts two years!

It has no moons and there isn't water on it.

The gravity on Mercury is 3.7m/s2 (0.38g, that is 0.38 times the gravity of Earth).

Mercury’s surface is very similar in appearance to that of the Moon, showing extensive mare-like plains and heavy cratering. A strange thing of mercury is that craters are named for artists, musician, painters and authors who have made outstanding or fundamental contributions to their field.

The most important NASA programme: 1960s = programme Apollo, the man on the moon Since 1996 = Mars exploration programme Since 1971 = Space Shuttle programme

NASA have been done two missions on mercury: MARINER 10 MESSENGER

The first spacecraft to visit Mercury was NASA’s Mariner 10 (1974–75).Mariner 10 provided the first close-up images of Mercury’s surface, which immediately showed its heavily cratered nature, and revealed many other types of geological features, such as the giant scarps which were later ascribed to the effect of the planet shrinking slightly as its iron core cools. Unfortunately the same face of the planet was lit at each of Mariner 10’s close approaches. This made observation of both sides of the planet impossible, and resulted in the mapping of less than 45% of the planet’s surface.

A second NASA mission to Mercury, named MESSENGER, was launched on August 3, Most of the hemisphere not imaged by Mariner 10 has been mapped during these fly- bys. The first orbital image of Mercury was obtained on March 29, 2011.

Texts of: WITTKOWSKI KEVIN VIGNOLA DANIEL Presentation and animations of: SCAVETTA MATTEO MACRÌ MATTEO © Copyright All rights reserved