What is the atmosphere of planet Mercury?
1 Answer
Dec 6, 2017
Please see below.
Explanation:
As Mercury is a small planet, its gravity is small and as such it has almost no atmosphere as the gravity is too weak to hold down a normal atmosphere. There is a very thin atmosphere around the planet.
Further, as Sun is very near, this thin atmosphere is constantly being blown away in space by the pressure of sunlight and solar wind.
It's atmosphere contains small amounts of hydrogen, helium, and oxygen and tinier amounts of sodium, potassium, calcium, and magnesium. Some of the gas particles come from the solar wind. But these gases are soon carried away from Mercury by the solar wind as also by Mercury's magnetic field.
