Mercury is the smallest planet in our solar system and the closest planet to the Sun. It is located about 36 million miles (58 million kilometers) from the Sun and completes one orbit around the Sun in just 88 Earth days.
Mercury is a rocky planet, similar in composition to Earth's Moon. It has a heavily cratered surface with long, steep cliffs called scarps, which are thought to be caused by the planet's crust contracting as it cooled. Despite its small size, Mercury has a relatively large iron core, which generates a magnetic field about 1% as strong as Earth's.
One of the most notable features of Mercury is its extreme temperatures. Because of its proximity to the Sun, the planet's surface can reach temperatures as high as 800 degrees Fahrenheit (430 degrees Celsius) during the day and drop to -290 degrees Fahrenheit (-180 degrees Celsius) at night.
Mercury has no moons or rings and has a very thin atmosphere consisting mainly of helium and hydrogen. Because of its small size and proximity to the Sun, it has been difficult to study in detail, but several spacecraft have been sent to explore the planet, including NASA's Mariner 10 mission in the 1970s and the Messenger mission, which orbited the planet from 2011 to 2015. These missions have provided valuable insights into the planet's geology, composition, and magnetic field.
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