Table of Contents
What does Mercury have that the moon doesn t?
Along with Venus, Earth, and Mars, Mercury is one of the rocky planets. It has a solid surface that is covered with craters like our Moon. It has a thin atmosphere, and it doesn’t have any moons.
How can you tell the difference between a picture of the moon and Mercury?
Mercury and the moon look mostly gray to the naked eye, but if you digitally exaggerate the natural color in the pictures, you suddenly see blues, yellows, and flecks of orange.
What is one way in which both the moon and Mercury are different from Earth?
Both Mercury and the moon have surfaces, or crusts, composed almost entirely of rock and pocked with craters. Unlike Earth, which has an element-rich atmosphere in which incoming meteorites often burn, Mercury and the moon have thin atmospheres, called exospheres, that hold little gas and offer little insulation.
How far is Mercury to the Moon?
The total straight line distance between Moon and Mercury is 3117 KM (kilometers) and 900 meters. The miles based distance from Moon to Mercury is 1937.4 miles.
Why is Mercury so hot during the day and so cold at night?
Mercury has almost no atmosphere. Because it is so close to the sun, it can be very hot. On its dark side, Mercury gets very cold because it has almost no atmosphere to hold in heat and keep the surface warm. The temperature can drop down to minus 300 degrees Fahrenheit.
How is the size of mercury different from the Moon?
Mercury is about 50% larger in diameter than the moon, with nearly twice the gravity. This is because Mercury is much denser than the moon, being close to the density of iron, while the moon is closer to the density of rock. And of course, there’s the most obvious difference — the moon orbits around the Earth, while Mercury goes around the sun.
When to look at Mercury from the Earth?
Like Venus, Mercury orbits the Sun within Earth’s orbit as an inferior planet, and its apparent distance from the Sun as viewed from Earth never exceeds 28°. This proximity to the Sun means the world can only be seen near the western horizon after sunset or eastern horizon before sunrise, generally in twilight.
Where are the plains of heat on Mercury?
Mercury and the Moon: Spectacular Landscapes On the left, the floor of the Moon’s Mare Ingenii, “the Sea of Cleverness,” as seen by the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter. On the right, Mercury’s Caloris Planitia, “the Plains of Heat,” often called the Caloris Basin, as seen by the MESSENGER probe.
How big is the Moon compared to the Earth?
Its gravitational influence produces the ocean tides, body tides, and the small lengthening of the day. The Moon’s average orbital distance is 384,402 km (238,856 mi), or 1.28 light-seconds. This is about thirty times the diameter of Earth.