The Temperature On Mercury Ranges From 400ºC to -200ºC

Fact of the day: The temperature on Mercury ranges from 400ºC in daylight to -200ºC at night.

Mercury is the closest planet to the sun. It is around 0.39 astronomical units away from the sun (an astronomical unit [am] is the distance from the earth to the sun) which is 57.91 million km.
As a result of this, the planet endures extreme temperatures (as displayed in the title). The solar wind is so powerful there, that it has stripped away its atmosphere, so is very prone to meteorite impacts.


(above) The surface of Mercury. The volume of craters is very large, even craters within craters, within craters.

A year on Mercury is 88 Earth days, and a day on Mercury is 176 Earth days. This means that a day lasts for two years on Mercury.
Also this planet is smaller than two of the largest satellites in the solar system, Ganymede, a moon of Jupiter, and Titan, a moon of Saturn.

Mercury's orbit is the most elliptical of all the planets in the solar system, and it is close to the sun, so it experiences very large variations in gravitational pull. Because of this, its orbit has been used for testing various gravitational theories. This planet had a large contribution to proving general relativity*, as it did not quite fit Newton's theory of gravitation, but general relativity explained its orbit perfectly.


*For more information on general relativity, see my post Every Single Object In The Universe Has A Slight Gravitational Effect On Every Other Object In The Universe.


Images from NASA, https://www.nasa.gov/multimedia/imagegallery/iotd.html





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