Mercury
Small world. Big extremes.
A cratered, rocky world with almost no atmosphere to carry heat from day to night. Mercury races around the Sun while turning slowly on its axis.
Explore this orbit ↗
Image: NASA / Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory / Carnegie Institution of Washington. Processed mission imagery; apparent color varies with filters and processing.
Mercury compared with Earth
Its equatorial diameter is 0.38 times Earth’s. Its mass is 0.06 times Earth’s, while its orbital period is 0.24 Earth years.
The reference gravity is about 3.7 m/s². These rounded values include the reference conventions used in NASA’s fact sheet; the ideal spherical gravity calculator can differ slightly.
A few good questions
How far is Mercury from the Sun?
Mercury has a mean orbital distance of about 57.9 million kilometers, or 0.39 AU. Its actual distance varies through its elliptical orbit.
How long is a year on Mercury?
An orbit takes approximately 88 Earth days. The orbit simulator lets you see how distance affects the length of a year.