Why is Mercury a cool place?

We`re about to learn why the planet Mercury is such a cool place! First, it`s the closest planet to the Sun, so its extremely hot there. It can get as hot as 800 degrees!

But, it`s cool too. How cool is it, you ask? How does 300 degrees below zero sound? It gets very cold at night.The reason it gets so cold at night is because the planet has no atmosphere to hold any heat in.

The planet is covered with thousands of craters. What causes these craters? Well, meteors are flying through space all the time. Usually meteors just burn up in a planet`s atmosphere. We already know that this planet doesn`t have an atmosphere, so meteors hit the surface all the time.

Did you know a year on this planet is only 88 of our days?

In fact, there are lots of interesting things to learn about our solar system`s first planet:

• The best time of day to see Mercury is in the morning or early evening
• A day there lasts 176 of our Earth days
• The planet was named for the Roman god of commerce
• It has no moon
• It`s the second smallest planet in our solar system

So you see, our solar system`s first planet really is a fascinating place.

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