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For Mercury's current position and visibility, see the Planet Wheel.

Mercury

Proper Name	Mercury
Orbital Period	88 days
Distance from the Sun	Semi-Major Axis: 57,909,000 km (0.39 AU) Perihelion: 46,001,000 km (0.31 AU) Aphelion: 69,817,000 km (0.47 AU)
Eccentricity	0.2056
Rotation Period	1,407.5 hours
Diameter	4,878 km
Mean Surface Temperature	445 K (172°C)
Moons	None
Parent star	The Sun, yellow dwarf star
Other planets in this system	Venus, terrestrial planet Earth, terrestrial planet Mars, terrestrial planet Jupiter, gas giant Saturn, gas giant Uranus, ice giant Neptune, ice giant Numerous dwarf planets, asteroids and other bodies
Notes	A rocky, heavily cratered world, Mercury is the innermost of the Solar System's planets, following an orbit around the Sun at a little more than a third of Earth's distance.

A view of the barren, cratered world of Mercury.

With a diameter of only 4,876km, Mercury is the smallest of the terrestrial planets - less than half the size of Earth, and scarcely larger than Earth's Moon.

The second smallest of the planets in the Solar System, whose orbit carries it the closest to the Sun. Mercury is a barren, desolate world, not unlike Earth's Moon in general appearance.

Sunrise over Rodin, a double crater in the northern hemisphere of Mercury. This image represents the view from within the first, larger crater: the second, deeper crater is also clearly visible.

Key features on the mapped hemisphere of Mercury.

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