Atmosphere Planet Mercury
Mercury (4,878 kilometers in diameter) is the closest planet to the sun and the smallest of the eight planets. It has been observed from earth since prehistoric times, but because of its size, it is fainter than Venus, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn - the planets visible to the naked eye.
A Brief History of Mercury
Due to its proximity to the sun, Mercury is always observed within 27 degrees of the sun in the east, before sunrise, or in the west, after sunset. It has an orbital period of just three months, the shortest of any planet. As such, it has the appearance from earth of moving faster than the others, a characteristic which led the Greeks to name it Hermes, after the messenger of the gods. The Romans called the planet Mercury, after their own wing footed deity.
In the eighteenth century, Johann Hieronymus Schroeter became the first astronomer to record his observations of Mercury's surface detail, but his drawings were unclear and turned out to be inaccurate. The American astronomer Percival Lowell reported that he had observed marks on Mercury's surface similar to those that had been observed on Mars. Lowell decided that these were 'canals', most likely to have been built by intelligent life.
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