Currently there are data of great interest that can show us how wonderful the planets of our solar system can be. However, today I will mention the surprising curiosities of mercury, look at them
Some of the curiosities of mercury are:
1. Mercury is the smallest planet in the Solar System
Mercury It is the smallest planet in the entire Solar System. It is only 4879 kilometers across its equator. Similarly, it cannot be compared to Earth's, which has a length of 12.742 kilometers. You can learn more about the curiosities of the solar system on our site.
2. Brief history of mercury
La orbit Mercury is so close to the Sun that it is difficult to see it from the ground. This is why prehistoric astronomers never looked at the planet. Seen from Earth, Mercury is never located far from the Sun in the sky. Due to the Sun's glare, Mercury can only be seen at dusk.
In this sense, Timocharis was the first to notice Mercury in the year 265 BC Other ancient astronomers who experienced Mercury include Zupus (1693), who similarly studied the orbit of the planet.
Because it was very difficult to see, from the Earth, other features of the planet's surface in reference, it wasn't until the 60s that intellectuals established the proper length of a planetary day on its axis (59 Earth days). This also demonstrated that the permanence of Mercury's day and year are the same. You may also be interested in: 14 CHARACTERISTICS OF THE PLANET MERCURY THAT WILL CAPTURE YOU
3. Mercury is not the hottest planet
Another of the curiosities of Mercury is that it is the closest planet to the Sol, but it's not the warmest. The temperature in the sunlit zone can reach 430°C. But since the planet doesn't have an atmosphere to trap this heat, temperatures nocturnal in space they can drop down to -170ºC.
On the other hand, Venus, has a thick layer of clouds arranged especially by sulfur dioxide and sulfuric acid that excite a warm greenhouse effect. In other words, they keep the heat on the planet's surface, achieving an average temperature of 464ºC. The surface temperature never drops below 400ºC, which makes it the hottest planet in the Solar System.
4. The second warmest planet
As I mentioned before, one of the curiosities of Mercury is that one would expect that, being the closest to the Sun, it would get the first prize in high temperatures. However, it is only the second hottest planet, as Venus beats it to the podium. What happens is that the side of Mercury that faces the Sol, in effect, exhibits temperatures as high as 427 °C, but the opposite, as low as -173 °C. At the same time, Mercury does not have an atmosphere that allows it to normalize temperatures.
5. The second densest planet
Another of the curiosities of mercury is that despite being one of the Planets smaller, it has a great density, making it the second densest planet in the Solar System, after Earth. Since it is composed primarily of rock and heavy metals, each cubic centimeter has 5,4 grams of density. If you are interested in learning more about the gravity of the planet Jupiter, there is valuable information about other planets in the solar system.
6. Mercury's core is molten
In recent times, scientists have come to reflect that the core of Mercury it's melted Usually the nuclei of the small planets aspire to congeal quickly, but apparently this star has a tenuous element in its center; sulfur, which makes this matter difficult.
7. Mercury has wrinkles
As Mercury's core cools and constricts, currents geological cause folds to form on its surface. The planet is full of these anomalies that develop over hundreds of thousands of kilometers and rise to about a kilometer.
8. The planet with the most holes in the Solar System
Another of the curiosities of Mercury is that it is the planet with the most craters or black holes in the Solar System. This is due to excessive collisions with comets and asteroids. Most of these geological events have been named after famous artists and novelists (Dickens, Cervantes, Bronte). The largest of all is known as Caloris Crater, discovered in 1974 by the Mariner 10 probe and measuring 1550 km in diameter. If you'd like to know more about the giant planets like Jupiter, there are also many interesting curiosities.
9. Mercury is getting smaller
geographical damage tectonics prevailing on Mercury are formidable slopes referred to as "lobed scarps." The researchers speculated that these notches were signs of global reduction, like the "wrinkles" on a raisin. Why is Mercury getting smaller? The planet's core accounts for a whopping 60–70% of its mass.
The freezing of this core of great dimension has led to a remarkable upheaval of the planet. Pictorial representations of the undulating scarps provided by MESSENGER show that the total shrinkage is two to seven times greater than speculated by researchers. Scientists.
10. Ice on the so-called "hell planet"
Mercury would seem to be an impossible place to find ice. But the tilt of Mercury's spin axis is usually zero (less than one degree); therefore, the ground of the holes installed in the poles of the planet never see the light of the sun. Sol. Wise men hinted decades ago that there might be solidified water trapped there.
The idea gained more support in 1991, when the Arecibo radio telescope in Puerto Rico and the Goldstone antenna in California discovered unusually radiant radar thoughts, which came from the poles of Mercury (the kind of speculate that would cause the ice).
11. Strange sphere on Mercury
Notable in Mercury's geology is the Caloris Basin, a bullet hole that forms one of the largest meteoric holes in the entire Solar System; this geological alignment has a contiguous diameter of 1.550 km. MESSENGER discovered volcanic vents located near the edge of the basin.
Right on the dissimilar side of this enormous geological alignment are some hills or mountain ranges treated as Strange Terrain, or Weird Terrain. One assumption about the beginning of this complicated geomorphology is that the encounter waves generated by the blow that constituted the Cuenca of Caloris crossed the entire planetary sphere converging in the opposites of said formation (180°), breaking the surface, and constituting this mountain.
12. Mercury has a tail
Finally, the exosphere of Mercury it's a very thin atmosphere where atoms and molecules are so far apart, they're more likely to crash to the surface before they collide with each other.
This material essentially comes from the surface of Mercury itself, steepened by solar radiation and wind strafing. solar, or by the materials ejected by meteoroids that collide with its surface. If you want to know more about the heliocentric theory, it is also fascinating how it affects our view of the cosmos.
The MESSENGER spacecraft was able to establish the chemical constitution of the exosphere which was based on hydrogen, helium, sodium, potassium and calcium and in the same way monitor the material as it affiliated the prolonged form, analogous to the tail of a comet, of 2 million kilometers, due to the exercise of the solar wind. Very surprising mercury curiosities.