Mercury

Mercury is almost 58 million kilometres away from the sun. It is the closest planet to the sun. Compared to the sun, it's just a crumb. It is 57 million kilometres from the sun and so it is blazing hot, about 500 degrees, but is not the hottest planet, because that is Venus. And in the shade, so where the sun doesn't come, it's freezing cold again.

Facts

Mercury is named after the messenger of the Roman gods, named after the 'quick messenger', because the planet rotates so quickly around the sun, which is why it is also called the fast planet. In 88 days the planet has made its round, and in 59 days around its own axis. Mercury is closest to the Sun. As a result, it is very hot. 430 degrees during the day, at night it can freeze 170 degrees on Mercury. So very cold!

Mercury has no atmosphere, the surface of the planet is covered with holes called craters. Craters are the openings of a volcano when it has erupted. Mercury has so much. Mercury shrank a bit, because the surface cooled down. As a result, Mercury has “wrinkles”. Mercury is a stone planet and has no manes.

The planet fits 8 times into the earth.

It is the smallest planet in our solar system. If you look at it with a telescope you only see an asterisk. So it reflects a lot of light.

Because the planet is always close to the sun in the sky, Mercury is difficult to find. You can try it shortly after sunset when Mercury is a sunset star. Or shortly before sunrise when the planet is a morning star.

The appearance of Mercury is very similar to that of our own moon. The planet's surface is littered with craters, while flatter areas, just like the moon. The surface is clearly very old and unchanged for billions of years. We believe that Mercury, like the rest of the solar system, is over 4 billion years old.