The Universe TV - Solar Empire TV - Johann Wolfgang von Goethe - Robert Strom & Ann Sprague - Brian Cox TV -
2,887. Venus and Mercury: two hostile planets that in the history of universe have suffered very different fates ... Both demonstrate the horrors of the planets that have gone horribly wrong. (Universe & Astronomy & Solar System & Venus & Mercury) The Universe: Inner Planets
2,894. Mercury is the closest planet to the sun. The planet has no known moons. Mercury has no atmosphere. And it’s known as a Naked Eye planet ... Mercury is the solar system’s tiniest planet. (Universe & Astronomy & Solar System & Mercury) ibid.
2,895. The planet orbits the sun in eighty-eight Earth-days. (Universe & Astronomy & Solar System & Mercury) ibid.
2,896. A year on Mercury is shorter than a day on the planet. And this sluggish rotation gives Mercury somewhat peculiar weather. (Universe & Astronomy & Solar System & Mercury) ibid.
2,897. On Mercury you wouldn’t be able to hear the eruption. (Universe & Astronomy & Solar System & Mercury) ibid.
80,913. Its scarred face tells of duels with comets and asteroids. We see a small bleak world where gravity is too weak to hold on to an atmosphere. With no blanket to insulate, Mercury is a planet of temperature extremes. Solar Empire: A Star is Born
80,914. I had rather be Mercury, the smallest among seven [planets], revolving round the sun, than the first among five [moons] revolving round Saturn. Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, cited Wood’s Dictionary of Quotations 1893
80,915. Mercury is the smallest planet in the Solar System (4,878 km diameter). Even three outer satellites are equal or larger than Mercury – Callisto (4,818 km diameter), Ganymede (another satellite of Jupiter) at 5,468 km diameter is significantly larger and the Saturnian’s Satellite Titan (5,150 km diameter) is also larger. Mercury is only 4,878 km in diameter, or about one-third the diameter of the earth. Its volume is only about 6% that of the Earth, so it would take almost 18 Mercurys to make one Earth. Robert Strom & Ann Sprague, Exploring Mercury: The Iron Planet 2003
127,688. The night sky is ablaze with stars, hundreds of billions in our galaxy alone, many larger, brighter and more majestic than our sun. On the scale of galaxies and stars, the planets of our solar system are little more than grains of sand caught momentarily in the light of the sun. But on those motes of dust for over four billion years great stories have played out unseen. (Planets & Solar System & Mercury & Venus) Brian Cox The Planets I, BBC 2019
127,689. Today, Mercury is the closest of all, enduring the sun’s full glare. Further out, lies Venus, choked by a thick atmosphere. Then, Venus’s neighbour Earth. And farthest of all, Mars, a cold desert world. Together they form the only rocky so-called terrestrial planets in the solar system. (Planets & Solar System & Mercury & Venus) ibid.
127,690. Each appears to have a moment when it enjoyed almost Earth-like conditions. Every one of our rocky neighbours has a story of what might have been. (Planets & Solar System & Mercury & Venus) ibid.
127,691. Mercury is a small tortured world. More than any other planet, it’s endured the unflinching glare of the sun for billions of years. (Planets & Solar System & Mercury) ibid.
127,692. The orbits of the planets are not stable over very long timescales. (Planets & Solar System & Mercury & Venus) ibid.
127,693. Something large kicked Mercury inwards towards the Sun. (Planets & Solar System & Mercury) ibid.