![density of mercury density of mercury](https://ph-static.z-dn.net/files/d98/7359040d1ccfb899b9744dd3a180ac93.jpg)
Let us solve the given illustration directly,ĭensity of liquid mercury = $13.6gc$. Density of a substance is the mass of the same per litre of solution. To solve this basic illustration, we need to have a basic idea about the density and its formula. The original article stated that Mercury's volume is 14.6 trillion cubic miles.Hint. "MESSENGER has now supplied a unanimous affirmative verdict."Įditor's Note: This article was updated on Dec. "For more than 20 years the jury has been deliberating on whether the planet closest to the Sun hosts abundant water ice in its permanently shadowed polar regions," MESSENGER's primary investigator Sean Solomon, of Columbia University in New York, said in a statement. Eventually, the spacecraft was able peer directly into the craters and confirm that water ice is stable inside them. Radar-bright deposits were spotted from Earth, and MESSENGER confirmed these regions lie in constant shadows. (It's not the hottest planet that honor is reserved for Venus.) The northern and southern poles lie in constant shadows, allowing ice to build up on their floor. Ironically, the planet closest to the sun contains ice on its surface. But the hollows appear to be younger than the craters in which they are found, and that means Mercury's surface is still evolving in a surprising way." "We've been thinking of Mercury as a relic – a place that's really not changing much anymore, except by impact cratering. "These hollows were a major surprise," David Blewett, science team member from the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory, said in a statement. Instead, they may be caused by volatile minerals evaporating after suddenly being exposed by an impact. With no atmosphere, the hollows weren't carved by wind or rain. Hollows are some of the youngest and brightest features on the surface of Mercury, and range in size from 60 feet to over a mile across and 60 to 120 feet deep. Mercury also boasts hollows-shallow, irregular depressions that seem unique to the planet. Several of the planet's scarps reach as high as 1.86 miles (3 km). Images taken by the Mariner 10 spacecraft show craters ranging from 328 feet (100 m) to 808 miles (1,300 km) across. Mercury's surface greatly resembles that of Earth's moon, with craters left over from the heavy bombardment early in the life of the solar system and during the planet's formation. (Image credit: IAU/Martin Kornmesser) Surface features In this illustration, planet sizes are shown to scale but their orbital distances are not to scale. Mercury is the smallest planet in the solar system. Without an atmosphere to help stabilize the incoming heat from the sun, the planet boasts some of the most varying temperature swings in the solar system. The planet has a thin atmosphere, but it is constantly blasted into space by the solar wind. Mercury’s density is 5.4 g/cm 3, much greater than the density of the Moon, indicating that the composition of those two objects differs substantially. Mercury's small size makes it too weak to hold onto a significant atmosphere, especially with the constant bombardment it receives from the sun. Mercury is the smallest planet (except for the dwarf planets), having a diameter of 4878 kilometers, less than half that of Earth. This high density in a planet that otherwise resembles the moon raises interesting questions about the composition of the planet's interior. The mass and volume of Mercury is only about 0.055 times that of Earth.īut because Mercury's small mass is enclosed inside of a tiny body, the planet is the second densest in the solar system, weighing in at 5.427 grams per cubic centimeter, or 98 percent of the density of our planet. This mass is contained in a volume of 14.6 billion cubic miles (60.8 billion cubic km). Mercury has a mass of 3.3 x 10 23kilograms. The slow spin keeps the planet's radius at the poles and the equator equal. Mercury orbits once every 87.97 Earth days, so it rotates only three times every two Mercury years. In fact, the planet spins on its axis once every 58.65 Earth days.
![density of mercury density of mercury](https://cdn-eu.green-acres.com/38895a/Av4y3ar07hg2bkfp/miniPhotos/Av4y3ar07hg2bkfp_1.jpg)
However, Mercury turns so slowly on its axis that astronomers once thought that the planet was tidally locked, with one side constantly facing the nearby sun. Some planets, such as Earth, bulge slightly at the equator due to their rapid rotation. The planet has a mean radius of 1,516 miles (2,440 km), and its circumference at the equator is 9,525 miles (15,329 km).