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By: Michael Salomon, Jack Pomerantz, and Kyle Fowler

Mercury. By: Michael Salomon, Jack Pomerantz, and Kyle Fowler. Basic Properties . Terrestrial Day Temp.: 840 degrees Fahrenheit Night Temp.: -275 degrees Fahrenheit Distance from sun: 35,983,095 miles Length of day: 58.6 earth days Length of year: 88 earth days

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By: Michael Salomon, Jack Pomerantz, and Kyle Fowler

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  1. Mercury By: Michael Salomon, Jack Pomerantz, and Kyle Fowler

  2. Basic Properties • Terrestrial • Day Temp.: 840 degrees Fahrenheit • Night Temp.: -275 degrees Fahrenheit • Distance from sun: 35,983,095 miles • Length of day: 58.6 earth days • Length of year: 88 earth days • Tilt: 2 degrees to its orbital plane, smallest tilt of any planet in the solar system • Mercury and the Earth almost have the same density. Earth is .98 times more dense even though mercury is much smaller

  3. Basic Properties Cont. • Direction of rotation on its axis: each time it orbits the sun, it rotates ½ times. During one orbit, one side of mercury is facing the sun and during the other the other side is facing it. • Mass of mercury: 60,827,208,742 km^3 vs. Mass of Earth: 1,083,206,916,846 km^3 • Composition: rocky body, core is almost all iron, 70% of its mass is iron and the other 30% is silicate material • Doesn’t have any rings • Doesn’t have any moons

  4. Atmosphere • Mercury has a very thin atmosphere. • Contains small amounts of hydrogen, helium, and oxygen. • The atmosphere is constantly being blown away into space because of the pressure from the sunlight and the solar wind.

  5. Surface Features • There are many craters and ridges. • Other land is mostly smooth. • One side is more heavily cratered than the other. • Three main types of surface features: • Smooth plains • Inter crater plains • Rugged highlands

  6. Discovery • No single person is credited to discovering Mercury • Mercury has been known since ancient times and has been observed for many years by many people.

  7. Missions • Mariner 10: • Launched by NASA November 3, 1973 • Objective: to measure mercury's environment, atmosphere, surface, and body characteristics. • Discovered that mercury has a tenuous atmosphere consisting of primarily helium.

  8. Missions Cont. • The Messenger: • First spacecraft to orbit the planet • Able to characterize Mercury’s magnetic field and discover water ice at the planets north pole

  9. Works Cited • http://science.nationalgeographic.com/science/space/solar-system/mercury-article/ • http://solarsystem.nasa.gov/planets/profile.cfm?Object=Mercury • http://www.windows2universe.org/mercury/Interior_Surface/Comparison.html

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