- good essay. watch akward structures! Laolee Xiong Period 2 2/26/97 MERCURY                  Mercury is the closest planet to the sun. It's average distance from the sun is approximately fifty-eight million km and it's diameter is 4875 km, making it the second smallest planet in our solar system. It's volume and mass are about 1/18 that of the earth and it's average density is approximately equal to that of the earth. Mercury's magnetic field is one-hundred times weaker than that of …showed first 75 words of 444 total…

…showed last 75 words of 444 total…and it took hundreds of pictures of the planet. After this, the Mariner 10 came too close to the sun and is now orbiting the sun.         Mercury has no known moons and it also has a double sunrise at perihelion (the point closest to the sun). Mercury also has the widest temperature range (500 degrees between coldest and hottest) of all the planets. But even with all this information, scientists still don't know that much about Mercury.