Mercury

How Hot Is Mercury?

During the day, the Sun’s intense heat can raise temperature on the surface of Mercury to extremely high level because Mercury has no significant atmosphere to trap heat, the surface temperature.

But in the night it's a whole other situation. At night, without an atmosphere to retain the heat, temperatures plummet drastically. This huge temperature swing—over 600°C (1,100°F)—is one of the most extreme on any planet.

But why is there such a big difference?

Mercury has almost no atmosphere which means there's no air to spread heat around or keep it from escaping at night.

Also At an average distance of about 58 million kilometers (36 million miles) from the Sun, Mercury receives intense sunlight, causing temperatures to rise dramatically during the day. One last reason is that Mercury rotates very slowly, taking 59 Earth days to complete one full turn. Because of this, one "day" on Mercury lasts longer than its entire 88-day orbit around the Sun. This causes huge temperature differences between day and night.

More Facts

Mercury is the closest planet to the Sun and the smallest in our solar system. It orbits the Sun quickly—just 88 Earth days per year—but rotates so slowly that one full day (from one sunrise to the next) lasts 176 Earth days. Mercury has no moons or rings, and its surface is rocky and heavily cratered, similar to our Moon. Because it has almost no atmosphere, temperatures swing dramatically—from scorching highs of 800°F (430°C) in the daytime to freezing lows of -290°F (-180°C) at night. Despite its size, Mercury has a large iron core that creates a magnetic field, something rare for a small planet. Named after the Roman god of speed, Mercury has been explored by NASA’s Mariner 10 and MESSENGER missions, with the BepiColombo mission set to study it further in the coming years.

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