![]() ![]() Despite being the smallest terrestrial planet from the Solar System, and in fact the smallest of all the planets, it is the second densest planet in the Solar System, with a density of 5.43 g/cm³.It orbits around the Sun with a speed of about 29 miles or 47 kilometers per second.This also makes one year on Mercury the equivalent of 88 Earth days, the shortest year of any planet. Despite its closeness to the Sun, it is not the hottest planet, that title belongs to Venus but Mercury is the fastest planet, completing a trip around the Sun in 88 Earth days.It takes sunlight 3.2 minutes to travel from the Sun to Mercury. Mercury is the closest planet to the Sun at a distance of 57.91 million kilometers / 35.98 miles or 0.4 AU away.Mercury was named after the Roman messenger god, because of its fast movements around the Sun.This paradoxically makes Mercury the closest planet to Earth, a plurality of the time. Venus spends most of its time away from Earth.In Venus’s case, it was also mistakenly believed to be two different things. In ancient times, Mercury was taught as being two different objects in the sky: The Mourning Star and The Evening Star.Galileo’s crude telescope didn’t manage to capture Mercury’s phases, this would be observed later by astronomer Giovanni Zupi in 1639, and thus he discovered that the planet had similar phases like Venus and the Moon.However, it was first observed with the help of a telescope in early 17 th century, by Galileo Galilei. ![]() Since Mercury can be seen without the need of a telescope, many ancient civilizations saw the planet, and as such it is impossible to determine who discovered it first. ![]()
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