The closest planet to the Sun is naturally very hot. It’s also small and rocky, with loads of craters.
The colours shown here are not what Mercury looks like to our eyes. The picture has been coloured to show different chemicals and minerals on the surface.
The Messenger probe took many pictures of Mercury before crashing into the planet in 2015. This crash was part of the mission plan!
Image Credit: NASA/Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory/Carnegie Institution of Washington
| Mercury factfile | |
|---|---|
| Position from the sun | 1st planet |
| Diameter | 4,880 km |
| Distance from sun | 58,000,000 km |
| Day length | 59 days |
| Year length | 88 days |
| Number of moons | 0 |
| Surface temperature | -173 to +427 °C |
| Gravity | 3.7 m/s2 |
| Atmosphere | None |
This crater, called Apollodorus, is near the centre of the Caloris basin. There’s a big ancient temple in Rome called the Pantheon. Apollodorus was probably the Pantheon’s architect.
The craters on Mercury are all named after artists (including architects!) writers, and musicians.
Image Credit: NASA/Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory/Carnegie Institution of Washington
Activity
Research five of the craters on Mercury and produce a poster or website which explains the achievements of the people they are named after.
Tanno and Iguda visited craters named after Dr Seuss (writer), Van Gogh (artist), Mark Twain (writer) and Hokusai (artist). On their postcard from Mercury, you can see a picture from each of these artists. In your poster/website do include images as well as text about the five people whose craters you research.
You can find out all about the crater’s on Mercury on this Wikipedia page. You could make it really fun by choosing craters which start with the same letters as each of the letters in your name.