Here we have Mercury. This is the smallest planet to our solar system and yet is one of the most interesting, purely because being so close to the sun has made it so unique. its slow rotation and fast orbit means that the side facing the sun doesn’t change much (about 3 every 2 orbits) and as a result, the one side can be 427 degrees, while the other can be a, substantially cooler, -173 degrees!It also has a unique kind of atmosphere, where although solar winds are always blowing it away, they are also constantly replenishing it, through radioactive decay and micrometeors causing dust. It is also very closely the second densest planet with about 5.4g per cubic centimeter.
Its extreme closeness to our sun also makes this planet extremely challenging to study, however two probes have managed to visit mercury, including messenger (a nice reminder of the god for which mercury was named) and together those two probes have mapped out the surface.
It is also the most cratered planet in our solar system, the rocky planets that can suffer craters from meteors usually self heal through geological processes but due to its geological quirkyness, mercury does not. Many of its craters are named after famous humans such as authors and scientists. As well as this, unusual readings mean that it is thought to have a molten core which is extremely unusual for a rocky planet of any size.This extremely small, fast moving planet is by far one of the more interesting as it has preserved the history of our solar system in its craters where various information on impacts may be found. It is also an oddity as planets go, even in our solar system. Making it seem all the truer that great things come in small packages.
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