because that's how slow it turns on its axis
88 Earth days
Mercury rotates in about 58.65 Earth days. This is called a "sidereal day". Interestingly there is a big difference between the length of this "day" and the "solar day"which is about 176 Earth days. Anyway the reason for the slow rotation is the closeness to the Sun. Tidal forces are responsible.
Mercury has very very long days. Each day on Mercury last as long as 58 hours, 15 hours on earth.
Because - Mercury takes that long to rotate once on its axis. Each of the planets in our solar system ratates at different speeds
because that's how slow it turns on its axis
mercury
88 Earth days
That's technically the "sidereal day", the "solar day" is about 176 Earth days. Anyway it's the Sun's gravity that's responsible. Mercury is so close to the Sun that it experiences strong "tidal forces". It's like the Moon's slow rotation caused by the Earth.
Mercury rotates in about 58.65 Earth days. This is called a "sidereal day". Interestingly there is a big difference between the length of this "day" and the "solar day"which is about 176 Earth days. Anyway the reason for the slow rotation is the closeness to the Sun. Tidal forces are responsible.
16200 days
Mercury has very very long days. Each day on Mercury last as long as 58 hours, 15 hours on earth.
Mercury has a very strange behaviour. Its spin:orbit ratio is 3:2 and this means that one day on mercury last two mercury-years! This is equivalent to 176 days on earth.
Because - Mercury takes that long to rotate once on its axis. Each of the planets in our solar system ratates at different speeds
Mercury orbits around the Sun once every 87.969 Earth days. It rotates on its axis (that is, it rotates a full 360 degrees) once every 58.646 Earth days. There is a spin resonance that makes its solar day (the time it takes for the sun to return to the same place in the sky) last exactly two of its years, or about 176 Earth days.
If you want to compare the volume:* Assume that both Earth and Mercury are spherical. That's a fairly good approximation. * Look up the diameter of Earth and Mercury. * Divide the diameter of Earth by the diameter of Mercury. * Raise this last result to the third power.
A day is defined as 1 full rotation. So mercury rotates at a slower pace than earth.