A fighter pilot is one of those elite men who has been selected to fly sleek, sexy, supersonic aircraft in dazzling aerial combat, as well as put on cool airshows and pose for photographs. Only the best pilots in the world get to be fighter pilots. The rest fly slow, heavy, ugly aircraft used to haul rubber dog shit out of Hong Kong, or worse, Detroit. Typically, fighter pilots wear elaborate uniforms which they claim are specially designed to be fireproof to protect them in case of an emergency. In actuality, however, the uniforms are made of a special type of cloth which repels beer stains.
A global view of Mercury, as seen by MESSENGER. Credit: NASA. Mercury sure is hot, but Venus is hotter. Venus is much further from the Sun, orbiting at a distance of more than 108 million kilometers. Average temperature there is a hellish 735 Kelvin, or 462 degrees Celsius â hot enough to melt lead. Venus imaged by Magellan Image Credit: NASA/JPL.
If one could stand on the scorching surface of Mercury when it is at its closest point to the sun, the sun would appear almost three times as large as it does when viewed from Earth. Temperatures on Mercury's surface can reach 800 degrees Fahrenheit (430 degrees Celsius).Because the planet has no atmosphere to retain that heat, nighttime temperatures on the surface can drop to -280 degrees Fahrenheit (-170 degrees Celsius).Because Mercury is so close to the sun, it is hard to directly observe from Earth except during twilight.ercury is the second smallest planet in the solar system, larger only than previously measured planets, such as Pluto. Mercury is the second densest planet after Earth, with a large iron core having a radius of 1,100 to 1,200 miles (1,800 to 1,900 kilometers), about 75 percent of the planet's radius.