Due to fact that this is my first post on this so much decentralized platform I am going to describe you the very first planet (counting from the Sun) - MMmmmeeercuryy. Of course we will not talk about a character from Marvel Comics (but she is very INTERESTING too) or Freddie Mercury - a vocalist of Queen so if anyone is here just for that I have to disappoint you.
I. Structure
Mercury is the smallest planet in the Solar system. The tour around the Sun usually takes it around 88 days with speed at 47.87 km/s (107.082 miles per hour) , what is of course the best score in the Solar System. It is a rocky planet with an enermous iron kernel, which creates a magnetic field much weaker then the one on the Earth, what means that if you weight is 100kg, on Mercury would be only 38 (planet designed especially for eating-lovers).
Is it still Mercury or maybe the Moon already?
Time from sunrise to sunrise is equal to 176 Earth Days (looking for a job there is definitely not a good idea). Due to have a surface covered with a lot of craters after crashing meteorites or comets, for a common observer Mercury looks almost identically to our Moon. It means that if you have observed the Moon, you also know how Mercury looks like.
II. History
First observations were made by an Assyrian astronomer in 14th century BC and it was written down in MUL.APIN - an old Babylonian compedium of knowledge. Babylonians called the planet Nabu - the messenger of gods in their mythology, what may be interesting, because Romes did the same but in an agreement with their mythology. That's why nowadays we know this planet as Mercury. It is fascinating how two separate civilizations can have the same association.
Coming to more present times, the first visit to Mercury was a flyby made by the american spacecraft Mariner 10 in 1974 using a gravity of Venus to maximaze its speed in order to just slingshoot itself over Mercury.
It looks pretty much like an ordinary satellite
The next messenger from the embassy of Earth to the Mercurian lands was... MESSENGER also created by USA. Its mission took from 14. January 2008 to 30. April 2015, during which it photographed 98% of Mercury and crashed itself into the surface of the planet, just like that (of course it was a plan of the mission).
And that's a satellite..
III. Neighbourhood.
In the times when we are being eavesdropped or spied via our webcams by governments Mercury is a place created for people, who values their own privacy. Why? Because it has no known satellites, it can not been reached via The Hubble Space Telescope (sunlight just pinch your eyeballs too much) and it can only be seen from the Earth early in the morning (when most of people sleeps) or late evening (when everybody is going to sleep). The only requirement is that you must love high temperatures and I mean VERY HOT like 427°C (800 °F ) for example.
Only me, myself and I - that's a life, but who will bring me a mohito?
IV.Future
As a future home for human civilization Mercury is rather not the best destination. Due to proximity to the Sun and the surface gravity lower than the Earth's it creates obstacles for our lifes to bloom that can not be overcome for scientists nowadays. Nevertheless, Mercury has some advantages too. Since its solar constant is 6.5 times higher than Earth's (it means that more energy from solar light reaches the surface of the planet than on the Earth) the solar panels or solar sails can provide plenty of energy for any device or hardware that use electricity on Mercury. I am pretty sure that it is the most profitable place in the whole Solar System to start an enermous bitcoin mining pool.
I hope you enjoyed my little tractate about Mercury. Let me know in comments what should I change or which planet, satellite or other cosmic creature you would like to know more about. Stay tuned. 5!