Welcome to Mercury!
You have reached stop #2 on Plymouth PTA’s Mission: Planet Exploration, a driving tour of the solar system designed to scale based on a 6-foot sun at Plymouth Elementary School! Click on Mission: Planet Exploration for more info, including a map to all 8 planets.
Image Credit: NASA
A little bit about the littlest planet
Mercury is the smallest planet in our solar system and nearest to the Sun. It is only slightly larger than Earth's Moon. Mercury’s days are longer because it rotates much more slowly than Earth. One Mercury day is equal to 59 days on Earth. However, Mercury’s year is very short because it’s so much closer to the Sun and can go around much faster than we do. In fact, a year on Mercury is only 88 days!
Mercury has a rocky, cratered surface, much like our Moon. It can be extremely hot during the day (up to 800 degrees Fahrenheit) but extremely cold at night (down to -290 degrees Fahrenheit) because it doesn’t have an atmosphere (like we do on Earth) to keep in the warmth from the Sun.
More kid-friendly facts about Mercury can be found at the NASA Science Space Place.
More in-depth information about Mercury can be found at NASA Science Solar System Exploration.