Mercury, closest planet to the Sun, and the fastest moving, hurtles through space at 200,000 Km/hr. Named Hermes by the Greeks and Mercury by the Romans after the fleet-footed messenger of the gods. Mercury is similar to our Moon, cratered and very old. It has barely any atmosphere and the temperature variations are the most extreme in the Solar System, ranging from -170 to 400 ^oC. During its rapid 88 day orbit of the Sun it rotates only one and a half times. Too close to the Sun to be safely imaged by the Hubble Space Telescope and visited only by Mariner 10 in 1974-75, when just 45% of its surface was mapped, Mercury remains mysterious. Mercury has no moons.

For information about the real Mercury go to Bill Arnott’s nine planet site: http://nineplanets.org/mercury.html

York University staff on their annual ‘Planets and Pub’ ride