The average day temperature in Mercury is like around 400 degrees celcius. So why Mercury reaches -170 at night. When it's night on Earth, it's never that cold.
2007-02-07 18:09:04 · 9 answers · asked by Anonymous in Science & Mathematics ➔ Astronomy & Space
Mercury has no atmosphere, therefore the heat absorbed by the mercurian surface during the day radiates rapidly into the cold vacuum of space at night.
Gasses in Earth's atmosphere, including water vapour and carbon dioxide, create a 'greenhouse' effect that stops all of the heat from escaping at night. Without some greenhouse effect, Earth would also be far too cold to inhabit.
Venus (between Mercury and Earth) has an atmosphere 90 times as thick as Earth's so its greenhouse effect is much greater. The surface of venus stays about 400 degrees even at night!
2007-02-07 18:20:32 · answer #1 · answered by Graham S 3 · 2⤊ 0⤋
Mercury has no atmosphere like our earth. So it could not catch all heat in night times. Surface temperatures on Mercury range from about 90 to 700 K (-180 to 430°C), with the subsolar point being the hottest and the bottoms of craters near the poles being the coldest.
The mean surface temperature of Mercury is 452 K (353.9°F, 178.9°C), but it ranges from 90 K (-297.7°F, -183.2°C) to 700 K (800.3°F, 426.9°C), due to the absence of an atmosphere; by comparison, the temperature on Earth varies by only about 150 K.
2007-02-07 19:00:01 · answer #2 · answered by ♥ ΛDIƬΥΛ ♥ ııllllııllıı 6 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Mercury does not have a protective atmosphere of air like Earth does. The side of Mercury away from the sun (night) is left exposed to the cold, empty vacuum of space. The heat therefore quickly dissipates.
2007-02-07 18:13:57 · answer #3 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
The Earth has large oceans, an atmosphere and (often) cloud cover, to retain heat and release it slowly at night. Mercury's atmosphere is so thin as to be almost a vacuum, and it has no oceans or clouds, so any heat is radiated away quickly after dark.
2007-02-07 18:21:10 · answer #4 · answered by CLICKHEREx 5 · 0⤊ 0⤋
because earth has its natural satellite called moon which acts a reflecting medium and it reflects the suns heat towards the earth in the night so the temperature on earth is never low
2007-02-07 20:26:02 · answer #5 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 2⤋
Why is Mercury so cold at night?
2014-12-01 15:03:50 · answer #6 · answered by ? 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Boots night treatment gel (lil' green bottle)?
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2015-12-01 18:05:49 · answer #8 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
it has no atmosphere
2015-05-25 13:43:05 · answer #9 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋