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Mercury Andrew Chez Discovery And Name • Since mercury is visible with the naked eye it truly is impossible to say who really discovered the planet, but the model Copernicus made in 1543 with sun in the center of the solar system listed Mercury as a planet and Galileo backed up this evidence. • Mercury is named after the messenger to the Roman gods Composition/ Appearance • Mercury has a rocky surface • Mercury's core is 70% metal and 30% silicates • Mercury has a gray surface with craters Specifications of Mercury • First planet from the Sun • Approximately 57.9* km from Sun • Approximately 91.6* km from Earth • Mass: 3.3022x 1023 km • Volume: 60,827,208,742 km3 • Average Radius: 2,439.7 km • Rotation (Earth days): 58.646 • Orbit (Earth Years): 0.241 * millions Moons? • There is no evidence of moons orbiting Mercury but experts haven't ruled out possibility due to how hard it has been to study the planet, and because not all data from MESSENGER was analyzed. A moon was thought to have existed during the 1970's but it was later confirmed as a misinterpretation of a star. MESSENGER • MESSENGER is a robotic spacecraft orbiting mercury that has given us most of our information and photographs of the planet • MESSENGER has recently provided the possibility of water in the form of ice at bottom of Mercury's deeper craters due to the fact that Mercury has a little tilt on axis so the ice would get no direct sunlight. Atmosphere, Weather, And Temperature • Mercury barely has a atmosphere. But the thin atmosphere it does have is composed of hydrogen, helium, oxygen, sodium, calcium, potassium, and water vapors. • There is not weather on the planet due to the lack of atmosphere but there is seasons with more or less sunlight and drastic temperature changes. • Temperature changes drastically depending on the time of the day going from -300ºF all the way to 800ºF. The average surface temperature is 440ºF What If Humans Visited? • If a human was to travel to Mercury without specialized equipment a lot of things could and would happen. The human could either be frozen to death or burned to death depending on the time of the day. Since there is barely an atmosphere the person would choke to death due to lack in oxygen. Weight is 1/3 of that on Earth so the person would be able to bounce at a great height. • Dunbar, Brian. NASA. NASA, 05 Dec. 2007. Web. 31 Dec. 2013. • "The Magazine." The Magazine Article RSS. N.p., n.d. Web. 01 Jan. 2014. • "Community News." Lunar and Planetary Institute (LPI). N.p., n.d. Web. 01 Jan. 2014. • "Compare Planets." Planet Database. N.p., n.d. Web. 01 Jan. 2014. • "Space and NASA News – Universe and Deep Space Information | Space.com." Space.com. N.p., n.d. Web. 31 Dec. 2013. • MESSENGER Web Site." MESSENGER Web Site. N.p., n.d. Web. 01 Jan. 2014 • "Science." National Geographic. N.p., n.d. Web. 30 Dec. 2013. • "ThinkQuest : Library." ThinkQuest : Library. N.p., n.d. Web. 01 Jan. 2014. • "Universe Today." Universe Today RSS. N.p., n.d. Web. 31 Dec. 2013. • "Planets For Kids - Solar System Facts and Astronomy." Planets For Kids - Solar System Facts and Astronomy. N.p., n.d. Web. 01 Jan. 2014. • NASA. NASA, n.d. Web. 30 Dec. 2013.