{"id":124455,"date":"2026-09-14T13:23:00","date_gmt":"2026-09-14T07:53:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/?p=124455"},"modified":"2026-09-14T13:23:00","modified_gmt":"2026-09-14T07:53:00","slug":"planet-mercury","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/planet-mercury\/","title":{"rendered":"Planet Mercury"},"content":{"rendered":"<h2><b>Planet Mercury Latest News<\/b><\/h2>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Mercury may have shrunk more than scientists previously estimated, with the planet\u2019s diameter potentially reducing by as much as 23 km, a recent study has revealed. <\/span><\/p>\n<h2><b>About Planet Mercury<\/b><\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><b>It is the smallest planet in our <a href=\"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/solar-system\/\" target=\"_blank\">solar system<\/a><\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> and the nearest to the Sun.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It is<\/span><b> one of the four terrestrial (rocky) planets<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, along with Venus, Earth, and Mars.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">As the <\/span><b>closest planet to the Sun,<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> it experiences<\/span><b> extreme temperature variations <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">at its surface, from about<\/span><b> +450\u00baC (day) down to \u2013180\u00baC (night).\u00a0<\/b>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><b>However, Mercury is not the hottest<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> planet; <\/span><b>Venus has the highest average surface temperature<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> because of its thick atmosphere and strong greenhouse effect.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It has <\/span><b>permanently shadowed regions at its poles<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> that never see sunlight and thus enables ice to exist on its floor.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Mercury\u2019s <\/span><b>ancient, cratered surface<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> shows <\/span><b>signs of past volcanic and tectonic activity<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> and is heavily weathered by the harsh space environment.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The planet has <\/span><b>huge impact basins<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, including the <\/span><b>Caloris Basin<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, one of the largest impact features in the solar system.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Mercury has a <\/span><b>large iron-rich core,<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> which occupies a substantial portion of the planet&#8217;s interior.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Its <\/span><b>closeness to the Sun and its smallness<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> make it the <\/span><b>most elusive of the planets visible<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> to the unaided eye.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><b>NASA&#8217;s MESSENGER spacecraft <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">became the<\/span><b> first spacecraft to orbit Mercury<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, entering orbit in 2011 and studying the planet until 2015.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The <\/span><b>BepiColombo mission,<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> a<\/span><b> joint mission <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">of the <\/span><b>European Space Agency (ESA) <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">and <\/span><b>Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA)<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, is studying Mercury and is expected to enter orbit in 2026.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2><b>Planet Mercury <\/b><b>Facts<\/b><\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><b>Diameter: 4879 km<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> (<\/span><b>0.38 Earths<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, or 1.40 Moons)<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Surface area: 74.8 million sq.km. (0.147 Earths)<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><b>Gravity: 3.7 m\/s<\/b><b>2<\/b><b> (38% of Earth\u2019s gravity)<\/b><\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Mass: 3.3 \u00d7 10<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">23<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> kg (0.055 Earths)<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><b>Density: <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">5430 kg\/m<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">3<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> (Earth: 5515 kg\/m<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">3<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">). It is the <\/span><b>second-highest in the Solar System after earth.<\/b><\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Distance from Sun: 46001200 \u2013 69816900 km (Earth: 149 597 900 km)<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Solar irradiance: 6272 \u2013 14448 W\/m\u00b2 (Earth: 1366 W\/m\u00b2)<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><b>Day<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">: <\/span><b>58 Earth days to turn once on its axis<\/b> <b>(Mercury rotation period<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">); 176 days for the Sun to return to the same spot in the sky, as seen from a fixed point on the surface (Mercury solar day)<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><b>Year: 88 Earth days to orbit the Sun (Mercury orbital period)<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">. It has the <\/span><b>shortest orbital period of any planet.\u00a0<\/b><\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Obliquity to orbit (axial tilt): 0.01\u00b0 (i.e., the equator of Mercury nearly coincides with the orbital plane of the planet)<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><b>Atmosphere: Very thin <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">(&lt;10<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201314 <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">bar), including <\/span><b>oxygen (42%),<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> sodium (29%), hydrogen (22%), helium (6%), and trace gases<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><b>Moons: None<\/b><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><b>News: <\/b><a href=\"https:\/\/www.indiatoday.in\/world\/story\/mercury-shrinking-faster-than-expected-study-bepicolombo-ptag-2992057-2026-09-11\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\"><b>IT<\/b><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Mercury is the smallest planet in our solar system and the nearest to the Sun. Read more about Planet Mercury, Key Facts, Latest News.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":23,"featured_media":124426,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[10241],"class_list":["post-124455","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-upsc-prelims-current-affairs","tag-planet-mercury","no-featured-image-padding"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/124455","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/23"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=124455"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/124455\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":124468,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/124455\/revisions\/124468"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/124426"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=124455"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=124455"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=124455"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}