The story for kids
This is Mercury, the smallest planet. It's the closest planet to the Sun. Mercury runs around the Sun very fast, like a little bunny. In the daytime it's very hot there, even hotter than an oven! And at night it's very cold, colder than the coldest winter. Mercury looks like our Moon. It's gray and full of little holes. Mercury has no moons.
Facts
- The smallest planet – only a little bigger than the Moon.
- One day (sunrise to sunrise) lasts 176 Earth days – longer than its year.
- It has no air to hold in heat, so at night it gets as cold as −180 °C.
Numbers
- Size (Earth = 1)
- 0,38
- Year
- 88 days
- One turn
- 59 days
- Moons
- 0
For grown-ups
This is Mercury, the planet closest to the Sun. It is the smallest planet, only slightly larger than the Moon. Mercury completes one orbit of the Sun in just eighty-eight days, faster than any other planet. But a single day there, from one sunrise to the next, lasts one hundred and seventy-six Earth days. In other words, a day on Mercury is longer than its year. Mercury has no atmosphere to hold in heat, so the daytime is scorching, while at night the temperature drops to minus one hundred and eighty degrees. Mercury has no moons.