Diameter of Mercury
Now that Pluto is no longer considered a planet, Mercury takes the title as the smallest planet in the Solar System. There are several ways we can talk about the size of Mercury: its diameter, radius, volume and surface area.
First, let's talk about the diameter of Mercury. Astronomers have calculated that Mercury is 4,879 km along its equator. This makes it even smaller than the largest moons in the Solar System: Ganymede and Titan.
This makes its radius 2439.7 km, or 38.3% the size of the Earth.
Mercury has a total surface area of 7.48 x 107 km2, which gives it about 10.8% the surface area of the Earth.
Finally, it has 6.083 x 1010 km3 of volume, making it about 5.4% the volume of the Earth.
Filed under: Astronomy
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