Mercury is the nearest planet to our "Sun". It is the second smallest of our nine Planets in this system. It's diameter is 3,100 miles and it's average distance from the "Sun" is 36,000,000 miles. Click on the Star Cruiser to see a "Fly By" of the Surface of "Mercury". Mercury revolves about our "Sun" in 88 days. Moving at a speed of 30 miles per second or 108,000 miles per hour. Mercury's rotation will complete a full turn in 59 "Earth" days. The surface temperature during the "Sun's" apex is believed to be 800  ⁰F. during the day and drops to a low of minus 150 ⁰F. at night. The surface of "Mercury" is similar to that of our "Moon".   Satellite images have indicated sinuous scarps that extend for hundreds of kilometers. These long, steep cliffs may have originated as a result of crustal compression. Various investigators have hypothesized that Mercury's core once consisted of molten iron, which shrank by several kilometers upon cooling. The resultant settling of the planetary crust produced large-scale wrinkles in the form of the scarps. Mercury has a weak but permanent magnetic field, this would suggest that Mercury, like the Earth, has a large iron core. The presence of such a core would account for the high mean density of the planet. Although Mercury is considerably smaller than the Earth, its mean density is about 5.44 grams per cubic cm, as compared to 5.5 grams per cubic cm for the Earth. Mercury's atmosphere is negligible, consisting chiefly of a tenuous layer of hydrogen, helium, sodium, potassium, oxygen, and possibly neon. Trace amounts of argon, carbon dioxide, krypton, and xenon are also present. The planet's gravity is so weak that it cannot retain significant amounts of atmospheric gases believed to be condensed upon it's surface by solar winds from the "Sun".

Clik on the "Image at right" to see a "Colorized Image"  of the Planet.