1. Mercury The coolest planet

2. How much would you weigh on Mercury? If you moved to Mercury you would not weigh as much as you do on Earth. Not because you would lose weight on the space ship, but because Mercury is smaller, and so has less gravity. If you weigh 70 pounds on Earth, you would weigh only about 27 pounds on Mercury.

3. Mercury’s Distance Since it is closer to the Sun than the Earth, the illumination of Mercury's disk varies when viewed with a telescope from our perspective. Galileo's telescope was too small to see Mercury's phases but he did see the phases of Venus.telescopeGalileoVenus

4. Mercury’s facts Until 1962 it was thought that Mercury's "day" was the same length as its "year" so as to keep that same face to the Sun much as the Moon does to the Earth. But this was shown to be false in 1965 by Doppler radar observations. It is now known that Mercury rotates three times in two of its years. Mercury is the only body in the solar system known to have an orbital/rotational resonance with a ratio other than 1:1 (though many have no resonance's at all). resonance

5. Mercury’s surface The surface of Mercury exhibits enormous escarpments, some up to hundreds of kilometers in length and as much as three kilometers high. Some cut thru the rings of craters and other features in such a way as to indicate that they were formed by compression.

6. `Mercury’s temperature Remember that when the surface is not lit by the Sun, the temperature plummets to as low as -150°C. Because Mercury does not have an atmosphere, heat is not conducted from the hot sunlit surface to these so called "cold trap.’’

7. More facts By measuring its weight we can tell that inside, Mercury is much more like the Earth than the Moon. It has a core made of iron, and the centre may be molten, kept hot by radiation deep within the core.

8. How much would you weigh on mercury? If you moved to mercury you would only weigh as much as you do on Earth. If you weigh 70 pounds on Earth you would only weigh about 27 pounds on Mercury

9. The planet Because Mercury is so close to the Sun a visitor could easily cook to DEATH. Scientists used to think it acted like the moon, but we are now learning that is in fact very different.

10. Mercury’s Moons Mercury has no moons!!

11. Mercury Means: Mercury was the Roman version of the god Hermes. Mercury is often depicted in pictures with winged sandals.

12. Facts However because mercury spins so slowly it gets very cold in the night time, which means a visitor could also freeze to death.

13. Did you Know? Mercury is so close to the Sun, and so small, that it has only a very small atmosphere. It has been blown away by the Suns solar winds. That means that there is almost no air on Mercury.