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Mercury


Mercury
Average Distance From Sun: 58 Million KM
Nearest Distance to Earth: 85 Million KM
Temperature on Sunlit Side: 400�C
Temperature on Dark Side: -170�C
Diameter: 4880 KM
Mass: 0.056 Earth Standard
Gravity: 0.38 Earth Standard
Atmosphere: Traces of Helium, Neon, Argon
Moons: None
Mercury Year: 88 Earth Days
Mercury Days: 59 Earth Days

Mercury is the closest planet to the Sun.
In 1974 the US space probe Mariner 10 discovered that its surface is cratered by meteorite impacts.

Its largest known feature is the Caloris Basin, 1,400 km, There are also cliffs hundreds of kilometres long and up to 4 km high, thought to have been formed by the cooling of the planet billions of years ago.
Inside is an iron core three-quarters of the planet's diameter, which produces a magnetic field 1% the strength of the Earth's.

Being the closest planet to the sun, Mercury has to endure extremely high temperatures and any atmosphere there may have been, would have been burnt off long ago.

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