The Planet Mercury
Mercury is the Most:
Mercury is the Most:
Mercury is the Most:
Mercury is the smallest planet, only slightly larger than Earth's moon. It has the fastest motion around the Sun perhaps because of its’ closeness to the Sun.
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Mercury is the most cratered planet in the Solar System- battered, bashful, and beaten, much like Earth's moon. This is due to its lack of atmosphere and the impacts of comets and asteroids that hit it.
One impact was so strong it penetrated the crust resulting in a 1000-mile scar, which filled with molten rock.
Its orbital eccentricity is the greatest of all known planets in the Solar System. Mercury’s orbit is the most inclined of the planets, tilting about 7° from the ecliptic. (The ecliptic is the plane defined by the orbit of Earth around the Sun.) It is also the most eccentric or elongated planetary orbit. Only Venus has a slower rotation period.
Mercury’s surface experiences a wider range of temperature extremes than any other planet.
Discovery's on Mercury have generally supported astrology's view of its human interactions..
Dynamic:
Mercury is the Most:
Mercury is the Most:
As if Mercury is not small enough, it not only shrank in its past but is continuing to shrink today. The tiny planet is made up of a single continental plate over a cooling iron core. As the core cools, it solidifies, reducing the planet's volume and causing it to shrink. Mercury joins Earth as a tectonically active planet with new faults likely forming today.
Mercury's heavy iron core amounts to nearly two-thirds of the planet's mass, more than twice the ratio of core to mass for Earth, Venus, or Mars.
The shrinking process crumpled the surface, creating lobe-shaped scarps or cliffs as well as Mercury's "Great Valley". It is about 620 miles long, 250 miles wide and 2 miles deep (1,000 by 400 by 3.2 km). It is larger than Arizona's famous Grand Canyon and deeper than the Great Rift Valley in East Africa.
The scorching hot surface of Mercury – the closest planet to the sun – seems like an unlikely place to find ice. Research has found frozen water hidden away on crater floors that are permanently shadowed from the sun’s blistering rays.
Seeing Mercury:
Mercury is the Most:
Crafty, Lovable, Communicator
As seen from Earth, Mercury hides in dusk and twilight, never getting more than about 28° in angular distance from the Sun. It takes about 116 days for successive elongations—i.e., for Mercury to return to the same point relative to the Sun—in the morning or evening sky.
For many years it was assumed that the large tidal forces exerted on Mercury by the Sun caused Mercury to show the same face to the Sun in the way that the Moon always shows the same face to the Earth. However, Mercury rotates in a way that is unique in the Solar System. It is tidally locked with the Sun in a 3:2 spin–orbit resonance, meaning that it rotates on its axis exactly three times for every two revolutions it makes around the Sun.
Despite its closeness to the Sun, Mercury is not the hottest planet. Venus with its dense atmosphere is the hottest.
In 2008 an instrument mapped Mercury’s long cometlike tail, which is prominently visible in the spectral emission lines of sodium. There was a time when scientists did not believe any planet had a tail.
Crafty, Lovable, Communicator
Astrologically: Gemini and Virgo
Crafty, Lovable, Communicator
Hermes (Greek Mercury) was the messenger god, a trickster, and a friend to thieves. He was said to have invented boxing and gymnastics. He was the son of Zeus. The speediest of all, he wore winged sandals and a winged hat and carried a magic wand. Did they know the planet Mercury actually has a bright gold tail?
A precocious youth, a mere five minutes after birth, Roman Mercury stole cows from his brother, the sun god Apollo. The brothers were reconciled when Mercury gave Apollo his newly invented lyre.
Mercury created musical instruments. With Mercury's instrument Apollo made the best music in the universe. For himself, Mercury made the shepherd-pipe, like the flutes used by his future son, Pan.
Hermes also carries a purse like money-bag. The purse signifies his role as the Greek god of riches, trade, and good fortune. As the Roman Mercury he was god of trade, profit, merchants. Travelers. and those crossing between the material and spiritual worlds.
Astrologically: Gemini and Virgo
Astrologically: Gemini and Virgo
Astrologically: Gemini and Virgo
Unlike the Sun and the Moon which are associated with only one Sign, Mercury is said to rule both Gemini (appropriately the Twins) and Virgo. Gemini focuses on our day-to-day expression and relationships. Virgo focuses on mercurial ability to take things apart and put them back together.
While Gemini is associated with speech, Virgo is associated with the digestive system.
Mercury is named for the swift-footed Roman messenger and mediator to the gods and mortals because of its fast planetary motion across the sky and proximity to the Sun. While Mercury is the fastest in its elliptical orbit around the Sun (and it is closest to the Sun), Mercury spins slowly on its axis. It completes one rotation every 59 Earth days. only Venus rotates slower.
Tarot: Magician
Archetype concepts include: The Storyteller, Lord of Mind, Messenger, Communication, Trickster, Traveling, Speech, Intellect, Versatility, Multiple, Busybodies, Mercurial, Thieving, Doctors, Medicine, Nervous, Critic, Mind, Thoughts, Fickle, Superficial, Neighbors, Siblings, Puzzles, Adaptability, Trivia, Sly, Sarcasm, Tongue Twisters, Androgyny, Quick, Juggling, Multiplicity, Farce, Wit, and Humor.
Magnetic Tornadoes
Astrologically: Gemini and Virgo
Astrologically: Gemini and Virgo
During its second flyby of the planet on October 6, 2008, MESSENGER discovered that Mercury's magnetic field can be extremely "leaky". The spacecraft encountered magnetic "tornadoes" – twisted bundles of magnetic fields connecting the planetary magnetic field to interplanetary space – that were up to 800 km wide or a third of the radius of the planet. Thirteen times a century Mercury can be observed from the Earth passing across the face of the Sun. In 2016, this image was taken.
An unusual interior could help to explain the differences in Mercury's magnetic field when compared to Earth. Observations from MESSENGER revealed that the planet's magnetic field is approximately three times stronger at its northern hemisphere than at its southern.
The magnetic field is about 1% as strong as Earth's. Mercury's magnetic field is weak while the interplanetary magnetic field it interacts with in its orbit is relatively strong. The solar wind dynamic pressure at Mercury's orbit is three times larger than on Earth. Despite this, Mercury's magnetic field is strong enough to deflect the solar wind around the planet, creating a magnetosphere. with a bright sodium planetary tail.
Dual Signs Associated with Mercury
VIRGO
GEMINI
GEMINI
I Analyze
Associated with Digestive System, Intestines, & Spleen
Much like their personalities, Virgoans are continually struggling to clean out the excess, to remove what's unnecessary (like outward displays of emotion)
GEMINI
GEMINI
GEMINI
I think - and talk
Geminis combine the nervous system with the hands, arms, and lungs. You may know a Gemini who talks so much with their hands, it's as if they're fluent in their own special sign language
Mercurial Energy
Mercurial energy can be good or bad, but it will certainly be energizing! This planet also prompts us to move from one thing to the next and to get answers on both a physical and psychological level. Mercury’s energy is both dexterous and a matter of perception.
Though Mercury did not join the Roman pantheon until the third century BCE, he nevertheless became a major figure in Roman religion. Mercury was similar to deities of other Mediterranean and European groups, Mercury was easily assimilated into cultures that were conquered by the Romans.
The parallel of Mercury in Norse mythology is Odin. Odin became all-knowing by sacrificing his eye to drink at Mimir's fountain of knowledge and wisdom. The Maya may have represented Mercury as an owl that served as a messenger to the underworld. Mercury does not have a strong sexual identity. The signs Mercury "rules" are Gemini (shown as male twins), always ready to explore, while Virgo is shown as a female Virgin.
Mercury emerged in the mythological tradition as a freewheeling personality who produced as many problems as he solved. In Roman religion, Mercury is god of shopkeepers and merchants, travelers and transporters of goods, and thieves and tricksters. He is commonly identified with the Greek Hermes, the fleet-footed messenger of the gods For all his wiles, Mercury could be genuinely helpful, too.
The earliest known recorded observations of Mercury are from clay tablets. These observations were most likely made by an Assyrian astronomer around the 14th century BCE.
The caduceus? The symbol originated when Mercury once attempted to stop a fight between two snakes by throwing his rod at them. Whereupon they twined themselves around the rod, and the symbol was born. This symbol was later adopted to imply neutral and noncombatant medical status. Snakes with their skin shedding represents immortal life. The snake's ability to change from a lethargic stage to one of rapid activity symbolized the power to convalesce quickly from an illness.
Learn More
These are just a few of the new discoveries by NASA's MESSENGER spacecraft, which flew past Mercury on January 14, 2008. On July 3, 2008 it was reported that Mercury's magnetic field is "alive." Volcanic vents ring the planet's giant Caloris Basin. And Mercury has shrunk in on itself more than previously suspected.
Later, six papers in Science reported on studies of the planet's surface - its colors, mineralogy, and the shape of its terrain. For instance, the color enhanced images reveal one of the Solar System's largest and youngest impact basins.
Mercury's Symbol
The crescent, circle. and cross combination shows Mercury as a living nerve, a businessman, and a master of illusions.
The crescent represents something that is half conscious and half unconscious. The visible half makes room for receptiveness, reflections, feelings, memory, and mental facilities. The empty half opens up for the unknown, the irrational, imagination, emotion, insecurity, and instinct.
The circle is spirit and demonstrates a continuing whole, like a never-ending tone or thread of unbroken consciousness. The cross represents the material, imperfect and mortal; that which is divided and in the dark.
The glyph of Mercury is actually a corruption of two figures: a cross below a circle and a crescent below a cross. The latter is turned upside down and merged to provide us with the familiar version.
The crescent on top represents the wings on his helmet. They make him moveable, agile, and nimble. Mercury is the messenger of the gods. The crescent shows his receptive and alert nature.
The crescent above the circle shows an upper hand on part of the semi-divine. The circle in the middle provides the initial power to gather, process, and distribute. The cross below puts all practical matters under Mercury’s dominance. Mercury has strong ability to sense, measure, and reason.