Image: Mercury, Messenger
of the Gods
Image Credit: Gods and
Godesses
|
The closet planet
to the sun, on the day side, this little planet(only 1/18 the volume of
Earth, has temperatures that reach 430C(810F), and -180C(-290F) on the
dark side. It is not a good planet to photograph because of its surface.
Its surface is a rough, porous, dark-colored rocky surface that reflects
almost all light, which is why only half of it can be photographed at a
time. Most of the information on Mercury was gathered up by Mariner
10 in 1974, 1975, and 1991. In 1974 and 1975, the first pictures
of Mercury was sent back, and its atmosphere was discovered. Sodium
and potassium make up Mercury's extremely thin atmosphere.
There are theories that because of collisions from other planets in the
creation of the solar system may have stripped the planet away of other
atmospheric materials. In 1991, Mariner 10 discovered that
at Mercurys polar regions there were sheets of ice. This is still
somewhat remarkable to astronomers because of the fact there is ice on
the planet closest to the sun. |
