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A Journey to the End of Time

The Solar System in 3D, in real time

A simulation of the Solar System driven by real ephemerides. The Sun, the planets, Pluto and the major moons, space probes, the International Space Station, nearby stars and the black hole at the centre of the Milky Way are where they really are at the chosen moment. You can run time from 1700 to 2100, fly from one object to another and look at the sky from anywhere on Earth.

Mercury

Planet

Facts

Diameter
4879 km
Mean distance from the Sun
57.9 million km
Orbital period
88 days
Rotation
58.6 days
Solar day (sunrise to sunrise)
176 days
Temperatures
from about 430 °C by day to −180 °C at night

Mercury is the planet closest to the Sun, a little more than a third as wide as Earth. It goes round the Sun in just 88 days, while a single solar day, from one sunrise to the next, lasts as long as two of its years: 176 Earth days.

Its metallic core reaches out to about 85% of the planet's radius, yet at the surface the magnetic field is only 1% as strong as Earth's. The Caloris basin, left by an impact, is about 1550 km across. Despite being so close to the Sun, there may be water ice in the deep craters at the poles, which are always in shadow.

Mariner 10, launched in 1973, was the first probe to study Mercury; MESSENGER, launched in 2004, the first to go into orbit around it. In 2018 the European and Japanese space agencies launched the joint mission BepiColombo, with two spacecraft: the European Mercury Planetary Orbiter, which will study the surface and interior, and the Japanese Mio, devoted to the magnetic field.

Sources