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Mercury© Jason Wood
Mercury: Closest Planet to the Sun
Because Mercury is so close to the sun, it is very hard to observe. The best way to observe it would be to use a high-powered telescope with a very good filter. Well, that would be the only way to observe it because it would not be wise to point your telescope at the sun and look through it. :) Even with the best equipement, Mercury appears to be nothing more than a very small and dim disc in the sky. Mariner 10 changed all of that in the 70's. It effectivly mapped the entire planet in 3 passes taking hundreds of pictures. THe surface is a lot like the surface of our moon in that it is covered in craters. One difference, however, are Mercury's scarps. These are cliffs that are nearly 2 miles wide and can run as long as 300 miles. These scarps were not created like Earth's cliffs, whcih were formed by plate techtonics. Mercury's scarps were probably formed by pressure from inside the planets core. It's year is 88 Earth days long and its day is 59 Earth days long. However, this produces a wierd effect making Mercury's day (the time from when the sun appears to rise until the next time the sun appears to rise) over 2 Mercury years long (about 180 Earth days). The key word is 'APPEARS'. From space, the numbers given before are accurate, but if you were to stand on Murcury's surface, it would take the sun 180 days to rise a second time. Another wierd effect comes from Mercury's wobble. Mercury wobbles on its axis making the sun appear to go back down (go in reverse) for a short while after rise before it conitues on with the day. Because of Mercury's extreme conditions, life could never have developed. The planet's weak gravity plus the powerful solar winds emitted by the sun would make an atmosphere developing on Mercury an impossibility. Plus with no water (It was instantly freeze and evaporate on the planets between night and day) and you end up with no life forming at all. Go To Page: 1 |
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