Mercury (planet)

High school (ages 12+)
Space & Astronomy

Name:

Date:

Step 1 · Read the article

Open the article and read it at the level above. Then answer the questions below in your own words.

https://smallwhale.org/articles/mercury-planet

Write what each word means, using the article.

Do not copy the article. Write two things you learned, the way you would explain them to a friend.

Answers below are taken from the article’s stored facts, so they match what the student read.

1. What is the scientific name?Mercury
2. What is the planet type?Terrestrial (rocky) planet
3. Why is Mercury the fastest planet in our solar system?Mercury orbits the Sun every 88 Earth days, which is the shortest orbital period of any planet. Its close distance to the Sun also helps it move quickly around the Sun.
4. Why does Mercury have such hot and cold sides?Mercury has almost no tilt and spins slowly, so one side can stay in sunlight for 88 days while the other stays dark for 88 days. This causes temperatures to swing from -170 °C at night to 420 °C during the day.

Orbital Eccentricity: A measure of how much a planet's orbit deviates from a perfect circle.
Spin-Orbit Resonance: A situation where a celestial body's rotation period is related to its orbital period by a simple integer ratio.
Exosphere: The outermost layer of a planet's atmosphere, extremely thin and diffuse.