In Depth | Mercury – NASA Solar System Exploration
Mercury formed about 4.5 billion years ago when gravity pulled swirling gas and dust together to form this small planet nearest the Sun. Like its fellow terrestrial planets, Mercury has a central core, a rocky mantle, and a solid crust.
10 Need-to-Know Things About Mercury - NASA Solar System …
Mercury is the fastest planet in our solar system – traveling through space at nearly 29 miles (47 kilometers) per second. The closer a planet is to the Sun, the faster it travels.
Mercury 3D Model – NASA Solar System Exploration
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Mercury Lander Mission Concept Study - NASA Solar System …
Jan 9, 2025 · The mission focuses on fundamental science questions that can be best, or only, achieved by surface operations such as determining Mercury''s bulk composition, the nature of the magnetic field, surface history, internal structure, and surface-solar wind interactions.
Planet Compare – NASA Solar System Exploration
Jan 9, 2025 · NASA’s real-time science encyclopedia of deep space exploration. Our scientists and far-ranging robots explore the wild frontiers of our solar system.
What is a Planet? - NASA Solar System Exploration
Pluto, discovered in 1930, was identified as the ninth planet. But Pluto is much smaller than Mercury and is even smaller than some of the planetary moons. It is unlike the terrestrial planets (Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars), or the gas giants (Jupiter, Saturn), or …
Solar System Ambassadors - NASA Solar System Exploration
Jan 9, 2025 · NASA’s real-time science encyclopedia of deep space exploration. Our scientists and far-ranging robots explore the wild frontiers of our solar system.
2P/Encke - NASA Solar System Exploration
NASA's MESSENGER spacecraft imaged comet 2P/Encke during its closest approach of the planet Mercury at 22:56 UTC on November 17. Image Credit: NASA/Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory/Carnegie Institution of Washington/Southwest Research Institute
Mercury By the Numbers – NASA Solar System Exploration
May 16, 2024 · Mercury is the closest planet to the Sun, and the smallest planet in our solar system - only slightly larger than Earth's Moon.
Lunar Pyroclastic Deposits and the Origin of the Moon
he primary difficulty in accepting the computer modeled "giant impact" hypothesis for the origin of the Moon, versus independent derivation, comes from the analysis of the non-glass components of lunar pyroclastic deposits. These prove that volatile reservoirs exist in the mantle of the Moon.