What are the most distinctive features of the planet Mercury?

Answer 1

Mercury was known to ancients. The records of observations date back as far as the Sumerians (third century BC). Here are a few more factoids about Mercury. It's the smallest planet in the solar system. (Remember the new kid on the block didn't qualify - and got Pluto downgraded as well.) It's the closest planet in the solar system to the sun. (And therefore has the highest orbital speed and has the shortest "year" of all the planets - 88 days.) It has no atmosphere. (There are just a few traces of this and that floating around.) Oh, and surface temperatures range from -180 to 430 °C. These are all things mined from Wikipedia, and the rest of the dope can be had from our friends there. You even get a link to surf over on.

Answer 2

That being said, and back to the topic, Mercury has a few notable physical features. It is alot like the moon, as far as it's surface. The largest known crater on itès surface is 1550 km in diameter. There are alot of other craters, lots of impacts with debris. It has no natural satellites, just our MESSENGER spacecraft, and almost no atmosphere. It is the smallest planet in our solar system, even though most assume Pluto is. It has an iron core, which is the main cause of it's electromagnetic field.

Answer 3

The geography of Mercury was thoroughly clarified by the MESSENGER robotic mission that began orbiting the planet from 2011 to 2015.

The main features are craters and impact basins similar to those found on the Moon. Being more than 4 times the size of the Moon, Mercury has formed a tenuous, surface-hugging atmosphere of ionized gases, but neither it nor the substantial Solar Wind are sufficient to effect much erosion. The largest crater is the Caloris Basin, nearly 1550 km wide. Within the Basin is one unusual crater named Apollodorus that has radiating crack-like troughs around it.

There are signs that Mercury had many lava-like flows early in its formation. Although it is no longer geologically active, there are remnants of shield volcanoes.

One very unusual feature of the surface is compression folding, where the crust has folded over many of the older craters. These folds may have come from contraction by cooling, or by tidal stresses caused by the Sun's gravity. Half of the planet is deep-frozen for up to 88 Earth days at a time, as the planet's rotation and orbit have created a solar day (176 Earth days) twice as long as the year.

Answer 4

The Caloris Basin. The diameter of it is approximately 1300km.