Mercury The Planet

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Mercury The Planet
By Ashlyn Bowman
My Presentation Outline

• Three reasons I wanted to tell you about the
  planet Mercury
• Top ten facts about the planet Mercury
• Pictures of the planet Mercury
• And, my Mercury surprise.

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Mercury The Planet
Why I chose Mercury

• Mercury is the closest planet to the sun.
• I didnt know much about Mercury and wanted to
  learn.
• Mercury is fastlike me!

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Mercury The Planet
Top Ten Facts about Mercury

• 1 Mercury is the fastest planet to orbit the
  sun, taking only 88 Earth days. How many days
  does it take the earth to orbit the sun?
• 365 Days
• 2 Mercury is named after the swift messenger of
  the gods in ancient Roman mythology.

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Mercury The Planet

• 3 Mercury is the second smallest planet in the
  solar system. The only planet smaller is
• Pluto
• 4 About four billion years ago an asteroid hit
  Mercury and made a big hole in Mercurys surface
  called the Caloris Basin. It is the size of
• Texas

Caloris Basin
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Mercury The Planet

• 5 Mercury is so close to the sun that it can
  only be seen from Earth just before sunrise or
  just after sunset. In what direction in the sky
  should you look for Mercury?
• Always toward the sun.
• 6 Mercury was one of the five planets know to
  the ancients. They called these planets
  wandering stars. The ancient Greeks thought
  Mercury was two different stars. They called the
  evening star Hermes and the morning star
• Apollo

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Mercury The Planet

• 7 Mercury only rotates three times during every
  two orbits around the sun and it has no moon.
• 8 Mercurys outer shell is comparable to
  Earths, but its big iron core makes up 75 of
  its mass.

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Mercury The Planet

• 9 Temperatures on Mercury reach as high as 800
  degrees, and as low as minus 250 degrees.
• 10 Only one spacecraft has ever visited Mercury,
  Mariner 10. But a new NASA mission will begin
  orbiting Mercury in 2011. That mission is called
• MESSENGER (remember the ancient Romans?)

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How Big is Mercury?
About 1/3 the size of Earth !
Mercury
Venus
Earth
Mars
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Mercuryas seen from Earth, 1/22/2007
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MercuryAs seen from Mariner 10
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Mercury The Planet
I hope you learned a lot about Mercury Thank
You.