Question on Planet Mercury?

Question

The temperature on Mercury ranges from 400C to -180C. Explain what causes this variation.

Answer 1

The side of Mercury that is closest to the Sun is the hottest. Mercury rotates on its axis once every 59 Earth Days (more than half a Mercury Year), so one side is in total darkness without any heat for a long, long time and becomes quite cold. One year on Mercury (one complete orbit around the Sun) takes only 88 Earth Days.

Space Probe "Mariner 10" visited Mercury and flew around it three times in 1974-5 collecting a wealth of information on the planet. Another space probe, "Messenger" is now en-route to Mercury and will arrive in 2008-9 to make three close fly-bys and collect further data. Photos of that probe are available on the Internet if you do a search for MESSENGER SPACE PROBE. This probe is expected to map the entire surface of the planet.

Answer 2

Good question... This is caused by the temperature differences between the light and dark side of the planet. Unlike Earth Mercury has no atmosphere to hold the heat. The surface that is faced away from the Sun only reaches the ambient temperature of space around it. This makes one side heat up to 400C and the dark side stay at a chilly -180C

Answer 3

To put it simply, in the same way that the Moon always shows the same side to the Earth, Mercury does the same thing to the Sun. One size burns while the other side freezes.

Answer 4

The lack of atmosphere and the 54 day rotational period cause the huge temperature range.

Answer 5

The same reason our planet varies in temperature. Its cooler at the poles and hotter at the equator. The subsolar point (point where the sun is directly over head) is the hottest on Mercury and the bottoms of the craters near the poles are the coldest.

Answer 6

there is no atmospher to hold in the heat