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Mercury Mercury is the closet planet to the sun being only 57,910,000 kms away. It is named after the Roman god Mercury who was the god of commerce, travel and thievery. Originally it was given two names by the Greeks from who the Romans stole their mythology. Apollo ruled as the morning so it is named for that since it moves across the sky during the day. Hermes is the god of evening and Mercury was named after him because of its daily course.[Arnett] Mars has a peculiar effect because its orbital/rotational resonance is not 1:1. It was discovered in 1965 by Doppler radar that it rotates three times in two of its years. This would cause a peculiar situation for someone watching the sun from Mercury's surface. "At some longitudes the observer would see the Sun rise and then gradually increase in apparent size as it slowly moved toward the zenith. At that point the Sun would stop, briefly reverse course, and stop again before resuming its path toward the horizon and decreasing in apparent size. All the while the stars would be moving three times faster across the sky. " says www.nineplanets.com
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