What planet came first, Mercury or Saturn?

Answer 1

Hmm mercury or Saturn ? I would have to say Mercury, a very high density planet, due to its large metal core, which is believed to be frozen solid, and a appearance very similar to the moon.

Answer 2

Mercury, probably

According to one theory of its formation (Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mercury_%28planet%29
"Mercury may have formed from the solar nebula before the Sun’s energy output had stabilized. The planet would initially have had twice its present mass. But as the protosun contracted, temperatures near Mercury could have been between 2500 and 3500 K, and possibly even as high as 10000 K. Much of Mercury’s surface rock could have been vaporized at such temperatures, forming an atmosphere of “rock vapor” which could have been carried away by the solar wind."

This means it could have formed before the other planets finished forming. Since Mercury has the most iron of any planet, and it is very small it is safe to assume that it cooled and took its shape before Saturn had a chance to. The gaseous planet would taken gravity longer to pull it into one whole planet.

The Babylonians (founded in 2300 BC) knew about Saturn and the Sumerians (4,000 BC) knew about Mercury so both planets have been known for a long time, but Mercury may have been discovered first.

In planetary order Mercury is the closest to the sun and so it could be called the first planet (and normally is). The planets all pretty much cooled and collapsed by gravity into one sphere around the same time, but we are talking a period of millions of years. Earth was hit by a proto-planet before it finished forming; a piece of the Earth broke off and became our moon. If that happened then Saturn could have also suffered some collisions that would have caused it to heat up and spread out again. Mercury probably didn’t though since it is so small, so dense and so close to the sun. It is more likely anything trying to hit Mercury would have fallen into the much larger and more powerful sun first. If that theory is true then Saturn would have taken longer to cool and become more than a cloud of gas and dust.

Answer 3

Yea, none really came first. It's not like they just wandered into the solar system. The sun and all the planets formed with the same contracting cloud of gas around 4.5 billion years ago.

Answer 4

That's a simple answer and it leaves no room for thought nor science. Since planetary disk all formed at once then all of the planets got their start around the same time. Even the ones we don't see today.

Answer 5

The current theory is that the planets and the sun all formed about the same time about 4.5 billion years ago.

Answer 6

I'm assuming your asking which planet is farthest from the sun, in which case it'll be Saturn that's farthest.

Answer 7

Only God alone knows the answer to this question since He created both of them.