Mercury represents the intellect, learning and communications. Whereas Venus represents our urge to communicate one's feelings with someone else, the energy of Mercury is limited to more practical matters: communicating ideas and knowledge, rather than emotions.
Mercury is also concerned with short journeys: for example, you may find that a difficult aspect to Mercury means that you should be especially careful not to have an accident. In the same way, misunderstandings can arise when Mercury is in a difficult aspect to another planet in your chart.
Mercury is the innermost planet of the Solar System. It is the smallest planet, apart from Pluto, and has a diameter of around 4,870 km. It has a very elliptical orbit. Because it turns so slowly on its axis, its day is actually shorter than its year.
Download a photomosaic of Mercury taken from Mariner 10 (JPG, 27K)
Download a close-up photograph of Mercury, showing how similiar the surface is to that of the Moon (JPG, 47K)
| Mechanical Data | |
| Mass | 3.3 x 1023 |
| Diameter | 4,878 km |
| Average distance from Sun | 0.387 |
| Period of rotation | 58.65 Earth days |
| Period of revolution | 88 Earth days |
| Mean surface temperature | 452 K |
| Maximum surface temperature | 700 K |
| Minimum surface temperature | 100 K |
| Temperature on surface | 100 - 675K |
| Atmosphere | Trace amounts of hydrogen, helium, sodium, potassium, oxygen and neon. |
