Mercury
Friday, April 19, 2024
Sun-scorched Mercury is only slightly larger than Earth's Moon. Like the Moon, Mercury has very little atmosphere to stop impacts, and it is covered with craters. Mercury's dayside is super-heated by the sun, but at night temperatures drop hundreds of degrees below freezing. Ice may even exist in craters. Mercury's egg-shaped orbit takes it around the sun every 88 days. -[NASA]
Changing Data
- Rises:
- 05:30:36
- Sets:
- 18:23:40
- Apparent Magnitude:
- 3.0
- Illumination:
- 6%
- Size (")
- 11.4
- Distance in light minutes:
- 4.9
- Distance in miles:
- 54,658,062
- Distance in AU:
- 0.58800
- Constellation:
- Pisces
Orbital Data
- Rotational Period:
- 58.646
- Orbital Period:
- 0.2408467
- Perihelion:
- 4.600 * 107 km
- Aphelion:
- 6.982 * 107 km
- Epoch:
- 1998.0000
- Inclination:
- 7.0049°
- Semi-Major Axis:
- 5.791 * 107 km
- Orbit Circumference:
- 3.600 * 108 km
- Eccentricity:
- 0.205625
- Ascending Node:
- 48.310°
- Axial Tilt:
- 0.01°
- Albedo:
- 11%
- Color BV:
- 0.41
- Color UV:
- 0.41
- Equatorial Diameter:
- 4.879 * 103 km
- Equatorial Circumference:
- 1.533 * 104 km
- Surface Area:
- 7.480 * 107 km2
- Surface Gravity:
- 3.7 m/s2
- Surface Temperature:
- -173 - 427
- Mass:
- 3.301 * 1023 kg
- Volume:
- 6.08272 * 1010 km3
- Density:
- 5.427 g/cm3
- Absolute Magnitude:
- -0.42