Astronomy: The planet Mercury

And now for the promised and not delivered astronomy. Seeing as there is nothing interesting happening as of current like a new supernova explosion or the discovery of an Earth-like planet, I will be giving a brief summary of a planet... Yay!

Mercury:

Mercury is the planet in the Solar-system that is closest to our sun. Of the eight currently recognised planets in our solar-system (RIP dear littlest Pluto) it is the smallest.
Mercury's year lasts 88 Earth days.
The planet is only visible in the twilight period at dawn and dusk, due to its angle in the sky caused by its proximity to the sun.
The name mercury comes from the Roman name for the Greek messenger god Hermes. The symbol for Mercury even comes from caduceus, the staff with two intertwined snakes on it.

To the left is the actual staff, and on the right is the symbol used for Mercury.

The temperature on Mercury is between about      -180°C to about 430°C, the range is so massive as the planet's atmosphere is extremely thin and therefore is not a very good insulator or storer of heat.


The first probe to ever get a close up examination of Mercury was the Mariner 10, this probe used Venus's gravity to reach Mercury.

For more information, Here is the wikipedia link to Mercury

And here is a little picture of the planet: