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Mercury
From Anarchopedia
| http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/8/88/Reprocessed_Mariner_10_image_of_Mercury.jpg/300px-Reprocessed_Mariner_10_image_of_Mercury.jpg | |||||||
| Orbital characteristics (Epoch J2000) | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Avg. distance from Sun | 57,909,176 km 0.387 098 93 AU | ||||||
| Orbital circumference | 360,000,000 km (2.406 AU) | ||||||
| Eccentricity | 0.205 630 69 | ||||||
| Perihelion | 46,001,272 km 0.307 499 51 AU | ||||||
| Aphelion | 69,817,079 km 0.466 698 35 AU | ||||||
| Orbital period | 87.969 34 d (0.240 846 9 a) | ||||||
| Synodic period | 115.8776 d | ||||||
| Avg. Orbital Speed | 47.36 km/s | ||||||
| Max. Orbital Speed | 58.98 km/s | ||||||
| Min. Orbital Speed | 38.86 km/s | ||||||
| Inclination | 7.004 87° (3.38° to Sun's equator) | ||||||
| Longitude of the ascending node |
48.331 67° | ||||||
| Argument of the perihelion |
29.124 78° | ||||||
| Number of satellites | 0 | ||||||
| Physical characteristics | |||||||
| Equatorial diameter | 4879.4 km (0.383 Earths) | ||||||
| Surface area | 7.5Template:e km² (0.147 Earths) | ||||||
| Volume | 6.083Template:e km³ (0.056 Earths) | ||||||
| Mass | 3.302Template:e kg (0.055 Earths) | ||||||
| Mean density | 5.427 g/cm³ | ||||||
| Equatorial gravity | 3.701 m/s² (0.377 gee) | ||||||
| Escape velocity | 4.435 km/s | ||||||
| Rotation period | 58.6462 d (58 d 15.5088 h) | ||||||
| Rotation velocity | 10.892 km/h (at the equator) | ||||||
| Axial tilt | ~0.01° | ||||||
| Right ascension of North pole |
281.01° (18 h 44 min 2 s) 1 | ||||||
| Declination | 61.45° | ||||||
| Albedo | 0.10-0.12 | ||||||
| Surface temp. |
| ||||||
| Avg. Surface temp.: Day | 623 K | ||||||
| Avg. Surface temp.: Night | 103 K | ||||||
| Adjective | Mercurian | ||||||
| Atmospheric characteristics | |||||||
| Atmospheric pressure | trace | ||||||
| Potassium | 31.7% | ||||||
| Sodium | 24.9% | ||||||
| Atomic Oxygen | 9.5% | ||||||
| Argon | 7.0% | ||||||
| Helium | 5.9% | ||||||
| Molecular Oxygen | 5.6% | ||||||
| Nitrogen | 5.2% | ||||||
| Carbon dioxide | 3.6% | ||||||
| Water | 3.4% | ||||||
| Hydrogen | 3.2% | ||||||
- For the chemical element, see mercury.
Mercury is the first planet from the sun. For a long time it was believed that Mercury is in the tidal lock with the Sun, however, recently it has been abserved that it is in the 3:2 tidal resonance (meaning that it rotates around its axis 3 times per 2 orbit rotations.
Orbit of Mercury actually defies the laws of Newtonian physics but is one of the observations that was shown as the proof of the theory of relativity of Albert Einstein.
