Mercury: The Fastest Planet Around the Sun

Mercury is the closest planet to the Sun, orbiting at an average of 36 million miles away.
It completes a trip around the Sun in just 88 Earth days, making it the fastest planet.
A day on Mercury (one full rotation) lasts about 59 Earth days.
The planet has extreme temperature swings, from 800°F during the day to -330°F at night.
Despite its closeness to the Sun, Mercury isn’t the hottest planet—Venus holds that title.
Mercury has virtually no atmosphere, which is why heat escapes so quickly at night.
Its surface is heavily cratered, resembling our Moon.
The largest crater on Mercury, Caloris Basin, is over 960 miles wide.
Spacecraft like Mariner 10 and MESSENGER have mapped much of Mercury’s surface.
NASA’s BepiColombo mission, launched in 2018, is on its way to study Mercury in detail.