5 Amazing facts about planet Mercury.

 

1. Most extreme temperature fluctuation

Though mercury is the closest to the sun still it is the second most hottest planet of our solar system , but it does have the most extreme temperature fluctuations in the solar system. The temperature during the day can reach 840 degrees Fahrenheit (450 degrees Celsius), but at night, temperatures can get as low as minus 275 F (minus 170 C). That equals to a temperature difference of more than 1,100 F (600 C), the largest of any planet in the solar system.

2. Mercury has water ice and organic compounds

This may sound surprising given that the planet is so close to the Sun, but the ice is in permanently shadowed craters that don’t receive any sunlight. Organics, a building block for life, were also found on the planet’s surface. While Mercury doesn’t have enough atmosphere and is too hot for life as we know it, finding organics there demonstrates how those compounds were distributed throughout the solar system. There’s also quite a bit of sulfur on the surface, something that scientists are still trying to understand since no other planet in the Solar System has it in such high concentrations.

3. Mercury has wrinkles

As the iron core of the planet cooled and contracted, the surface of the planet became wrinkled. Scientist have named these wrinkles, "Lobate Scarps" . These Scarps can be up to a mile high and hundreds of miles long.

4. Mercury is shrinking

When researchers checked the images from the MESSENGER spacecraft they found something which they didn't expect. They found some many small valleys and many fault scraps (regions where the faults have vertically moved upwards). This was a proof that mercury shrank.

Later they found out that there where many smaller fault scraps which means mercury is still shrinking. This shrinking is a result of mercury's core cooling. As the core cools ,the volume of the core reduces which is the reason for the formation of fault scraps. Till now mercury has shrunk 14 km in diameter and is still shrinking.

5. Mercury has "Tail"

Comets have tail , mercury has a tail so does that make mercury a comet?

Don't take it seriously , mercury is a planet not a comet but it does have a tail.

It was predicted in the 80's that mercury has a tail, later it was found that mercury does have a tail which is made up of sodium. Mercury actually has a very thin atmosphere which contains sodium. These atoms get thrown out when the sunlight hits them. This is what looks like a tail. Even though it was predicted in the 80's it was only discovered in the 2001.